


Big Hero 8 - AU

by RustyJeans



Series: Big Hero 8 [3]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Big Hero 6: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 47,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28738998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RustyJeans/pseuds/RustyJeans
Summary: On my profile (in this series) is currently two books - Big Hero 8 and Big Hero - the sequel. This story is essentially what would have happened if Tadashi had actually died instead of surviving as he did in this story. Hope you enjoy :)
Series: Big Hero 8 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028097
Comments: 14
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

'Tadashi! Tadashi!'

Rena lifted up her head from the ground, wincing. Her ears were ringing and half of her body was sticky with blood. She could hear her younger brother's agonised screaming, and turned her head slowly to look at him kneeling on the ground. Slowly, she pulled herself to a sitting position and she managed to clamber unsteadily to her feet. She ignored the pain as she staggered over to him, desperate to reach him and pull him away from the flames. Smoke was filling her lungs and making her head swim, but she kept going.

'Hiro!' She croaked, the slight noise making her throat scratch and burn. He didn't notice, he was still crouching there and staring at the building with horrid fascination. Looking at him, she felt a sudden burst of energy/over protectiveness. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet, where he shrieked with pain and collapsed on the floor.

'Where does it hurt?' She murmered anxiously, growing more wary of how much smoke they had already inhaled. He pointed a shaking finger towards his ankle, and she could tell he'd somehow managed to twist it when he landed on the concrete. She nodded numbly, grabbing his arm and placing it gently around her neck. Once again, she hauled him to his feet and they hobbled unsteadily towards the bushes. When they were far enough away, they collapsed on the grass, coughing and spluttering. Rena wrapped her arms around him and pulled him onto her lap, like she used to when he was a kid. The realisation about Tadashi was beginning to sink in, and suddenly she was crying into his hair. She bit her fist to suppress a scream of misery, not wanting to agonise Hiro any more. He was shaking with sobs, and she rocked him back and fourth as the sirens screeched in the background and the fire crackled menacingly.

She didn't know how long they were sat there before a paramedic was in her face, tilting her head up and asking questions that she could not bring herself to answer.

'I don't care.' She gasped, her throat protesting as she spoke. 'My brother's still in there! Get him out! Leave us here!' She looked up at the paramedic pleadingly. He spoke into his radio quickly and within seconds a surge of people had rushed towards them. She mumbled something else about Tadashi, craning neck around the doctors as she watched the firefighters run into the building. Her eyes were dry now, and a horrible numbness had began to creep across her chest.

Hiro was lifted from her knees and she protested feebly as she was helped to her feet. Her eyes were bleary, and she was tired. Oh, she was so tired. She stumbled along after them numbly, eventually collapsing onto the steps of an ambulance whilst lights were in her eyes and a gash in her leg was cleaned. Her other leg bounced restlessly as she sat there, chewing her nails and ignoring what they were saying to her. She was staring at the building, the building that her brother was still trapped inside. Half the building was blocked by numerous firefighters desperately trying to get the fire under control. Her brain felt like it was full of sludge as she watched them, only one thought was circling her brain.

Tadashi.

Sweet, compassionate, headstrong, brave Tadashi. Burning like a guy on the bonfire. She closed her eyes, she could see him. Flesh was melting off him like he was a candle. He was covered in gashes and his eyes were wide open, dead, blank eyes- 

Her eyes snapped open and her chest heaved up and down as she desperately tried to gulp in lungfuls of air. Pulling herself to her feet, she quickly slipped away from the watchful gaze of the paramedics, limping slightly due to the now stitched up gash on her leg. She stumbled away from the collection of ambulances, wanting to get away from the swirls of colours that were making her eyes sting and her head ache. She hadn't got very far before she collapsed on the grass, turning her back on the frenzy behind her. She pulled her knees up to her chest and gently traced the stitches lining the side of her shin. 

It wasn't long before she could hear her name being called, but it sounded almost distorted. Like it wasn't even real. She shook her aching head, thinking it was probably the smoke or a drug or something that was making everything sound like she was underwater. Before she could move, a hand was on her elbow and she was being pulled to her feet. The hand was familiar, and as her shaky legs straightened out she recognised the perfume. She looked up into the warm face of her Aunt Cass, and let herself be wrapped up in her love and tenderness.

'Rena.' Cass breathed in her ear, and Rena let out a sob. Before she knew it, they were both sobbing into each other's shoulders. She felt slightly comforted by the arrival of her Aunt, but it did practically nothing to soothe the pain that was consuming her. A few minutes passed and eventually Rena pulled away, wiping a few last tears that were running down her cheeks. She offered Cass a week smile and squeezed her hand.

'What happened?' Aunt Cass asked, looking at her with wide eyes.

Rena let out a long sigh. She closed her eyes and swallowed nervously. 'Tadashi um... He ran into the fire and the building exploded... I tried to stop him! I went to go back in for him and suddenly I was on the floor!' She choked back another sob and looked Cass in the eyes pleadingly. 'But there's a chance he's still alive... right?'

Cass placed a hand on Rena's cheek and stroked a tear away gently. 'Baby, don't get your hopes up. They've been searching for half an hour. He's dead.'

She nodded, closing her eyes temporarily and letting out a long breath. Tadashi's dead. He's dead and there's nothing she could do about it. She had failed to save him, and now he was dead. But she still had a brother left - and if she didn't buck up then he wouldn't be saved either. This last thought made her stomach lurch. Tadashi wasn't around to help Hiro anymore, he wasn't around to do anything. The realisation of what life was going to be like without him hit her suddenly. It was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice cold water over her heard. She was now wide awake, and felt like screaming. Her palms became sweatier and her vision swam. Tadashi. Dead. She turned and vomited into the bushes behind her, Aunt Cass was rubbing her back sympathetically. After she'd finished retching, her Aunt kept her hand there. Gently, she guided her back to the ambulances. Rena murmered something about wanting to see Hiro, but the nurses refused. She protested - soon she was shouting and crying and pleading on the ambulance step but they weren't wavering. They made her lie on the hospital bed, plugging in IV's and all sorts of other stuff into her as she screamed at the unfairness of it all. Her voice was hoarse and her head was aching so badly but she didn't care, Tadashi was dead. Tadashi was dead and they wouldn't even let her see her little brother! It was outrageous, it was- 

Black spots danced across her vision and her mind went cloudy. She was vaguely aware of the mask they had pressed to her face, but before she could pull it off her hand dropped by her side. The light went out and at last, she fell silent.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple of weeks later, Rena was standing in front of her bathroom mirror. Her tongue was poking out as she stuck a million tiny pins into her hair, trying to get it to stay in place. She was wearing a simple, ruffled black dress with a pair of tights and dark green doc martens. She had rolled up her sleeves and put on some colourful bracelets that went down her arm, covering up the stick and poke tattoos that she had done on herself at a happier time. She gave her reflection a weak smile before gently dropping a few bobby pins into her bag. She slung it over her shoulder and went to meet Aunt Cass in the living room.

It was the day of Tadashi's funeral. Rena wasn't sure how to feel about it. She didn't cry - there were no more tears left to cry. The last weeks had been the strangest weeks she'd remembered ever experiencing. Half of it she had spent holed up in her room in her dirty pyjamas, a boring Netflix show playing in the background as she stared at the wall. She'd cried. She'd cried buckets and buckets, but not in front of Hiro. She'd firmly decided that she wouldn't allow herself to do that, that she had to be strong for him. Because he was not doing well, at all. She'd barely seen him, he didn't often venture downstairs for trivial things such as food or staying clean. The only time that she had seen him was when she'd brought up food for him. Even then she hadn't been able to get a word out of him, he wouldn't even look at her when she entered the room. She would drop off his food and then go back downstairs to howl into her Aunt's shoulder or a pillow in her tiny bedroom. Her friends had visited once or twice before in the few weeks that had passed. They'd only stayed long enough for a cup of coffee. Rena didn't blame them, the whole house was depressing enough to make even the happiest man in the world weep.

She also spent a lot of time in the cafe. Cass had opened up about a week after Tadashi died, and Rena was grateful for the busy distraction. For the last two weeks or so, she'd numbly gone about collecting dishes and smiling emptily at strangers. It sounded utterly miserable, but it was weirdly enjoyable compared to being left alone with her thoughts. She tried not to think about it too much, as though if she completely pushed it from her mind she could reverse what had happened.

Aunt Cass placed her hands on Rena's shoulders and gave her a soft smile, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

'You look nice.' She said softly, stroking her cheek, 'when did you get so grown up, eh?'

'Thanks Aunt Cass.' Rena squeezed her Aunt's hand as they stood there, waiting for Hiro to make an appearance.

They hadn't found a body in the building. There was nothing to bury, nothing to burn. Instead, they had opted for a memorial bench to be erected underneath a cherry tree in their local park. Rena and Cass (Hiro hadn't been able to face talking about where they were gonna place it) had chosen this location because they had always gone there. Rena remembered visiting as kids, even before their parents had died. They would sit under the tree on a picnic blanket whilst her and Tadashi had splashed in the river below them. These memories made her feel warm inside, and she knew that Tadashi cherished them as well. In a way, it was like they were leaving him to rest with the memory of their parents. Rena didn't particularly believe in an afterlife, but the idea that Tadashi was at least a little closer to their parents gave her a great deal of comfort.

She turned as she heard footsteps approaching, and Hiro appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He was wearing a plain black suit and navy tie that he had worn to Rena's graduation a few years earlier. Aunt Cass was relieved that it had still fit him, money was quickly disappearing and the last thing she had needed was to waste both time and money on a suit that he would never wear again.

Rena stepped towards him and straightened out his tie. 'Ready?' She whispered. He lifted his head and looked at her with dull eyes.

'I think so.' He murmured. She turned away from him but he grabbed her wrist. He gave her a pleading look and she pulled him into her, wrapping her arms around his tiny frame.

'It's okay. I won't leave you.' She said softly, tears burning in her eyes. Wiping them away quickly, she turned back to Cass. Her Aunt smiled sadly at the pair of them before turning on her heel and disappearing down the stairs. Hiro grabbed Rena's hand and they followed their Aunt downstairs and into the car.

They hadn't hired out any fancy funeral cars or anything. There was not much point, it wasn't like they had anything for the expensive cars to transport. Aunt Cass got into the front seat, and Rena and Hiro were in the back. Rena slid in behind the passenger seat and Hiro sat next to her in the middle. He rested his head on her shoulder, refusing to let go of her hand. No attempt was made at conversation as they drive through the city. It was weird, their lives had completely changed and yet everyone was still going about their lives like everything was.. ordinary. Did they not care that Tadashi Hamada was dead? Did they even notice the car with the three lonely passengers cruising down the street?

About 15 minutes later, they pulled into the side of a street. The park had no official car park, so it was a short walk to it. The sky was grey and Rena could see thunderclouds rolling up above them. Wow, what appropriate pathetic fallacy. They turned the corner and was greeted with a tiny crowd of black-clad mourners by the gates. Straightaway, Rena could pick out their friends stood a little further apart from everyone else. There were a lot of kids from school, some that had never even said two words to Tadashi but had heard about the funeral on Facebook. She could also see her aunt's friends and a few professors. That was it. No family, Aunt Cass and Hiro were the only family members she had left. There was also a vicar stood with a Bible clasped in his hands, surveying the scene from a little further away, as though he didn't want to be infected with their grief. Aunt Cass approached him and shook his hand, exchanging a few pleasant words of greeting. If you looked at her, you wouldn't think that she had just lost the closest thing she would ever get to a son. Rena was amazed by her Aunt Cass everyday, the way she had been determined to plough on and not let this drag her down. Cass was the glue that was keeping their tiny family together, and Rena was eternally grateful for her. Even if she did hear her sobbing through the thin walls at night when she thought that her niece and nephew were sound asleep.

'Rena! Hiro!' Honey Lemon had spotted them and Rena pulled Hiro along with her to stand next to them. 'You look nice!' Honey Lemon said encouragingly, but Rena knew her well enough to know hat her usual natural positivity was very, very forced. Nevertheless, she appreciated it. It was nice that she wasn't treating her like a very delicate statue that would break if you breathed on it too hard or something.

Gogo grabbed her arm. 'You look a lot better.' Coming from Gogo, this was a top tier compliment. To be fair, it was true. Last time they had seen her, she hadn't showered in about a days and it had showed. She had been wearing stained pjyamas and her greasy hair was all over the place. She still had the bags and the sad look about her though, she had seen that much in the bathroom mirror.

'How are you holding up?' Asked Wasabi gently, and Rena cringed.

'Okay I guess. How have you guys been? I'm sorry I haven't called or anything.' Anything to distract them from talking about her dead brother.

'Don't worry about it.' Gogo said, smiling weakly at her. She returned it, suddenly feeling a hell of a lot more exhausted than she already had been. 'I've been keeping busy, I wanna get that bike finished before the start of the academic year. Then, it's like starting a clean slate, you know?'

Rena nodded earnestly, 'I didn't know they were keeping the labs open over the summer. Do they usually do that?'

'No.' Wasabi said, 'I think they wanted to give people a chance to catch up on any work they may have lost when... it um.. happened.'

'Yeah that's what they said when they announced it.' Honey Lemon said quickly, obviously determind to skim past this sensitive topic of discussion.

'Well I think it's been great to hang around in the lab over the summer.' Fred added, and Rena noticed how weirdly clean he looked for the occasion. Like, he'd flattened his hair down and everything. Also, how uncharacteristically miserable he seemed. The mischievous glint in his eye seemed to have burnt out. Burnt out. Huh. It seemed that everything good in her life had burnt up recently.

Before she could respond to Fred, the small parade of people had began to walk up towards the hill where they'd be having the service. Rena watched them and her stomach lurched dangerously. Her palms began to sweat and she felt rooted to the spot. It suddenly felt so.. real. After this funeral, Tadashi truly would be completely... well... dead. There was no chance of him returning now, no glimmer of hope. To walk up there, to attend that service was to admit to herself that her older brother truly had presided in that fire. Time had frozen as her mind raced a hundred miles an hour. Was she ready to say goodbye? Was this going to be some sort of closure? After this, would she be able to accept his death, move on from it? She had a funny feeling that this would not be the case.

They stood there until they were the only ones remaining, simply watching those who had congregated on the hill. They were a horrible mess of black - one of his least favourite colours. He had said to her once that it reminded him of their parents funeral, something that she knew they'd both rather forget. But Tadashi didn't need to worry about forgetting it anymore. He was dead.

It began to rain, perfectly matching how Rena felt on the inside. It wasn't even the refreshing rain, the rain that fell in great fat dollops and felt cool and nice and made the ground smell nice. No, it was the miserable, drizzly kind of rain that made your clothes stick to you and made you feel wet and miserable. Rena lifted her head to the sky and let the rain fall on her face for a second, allowing herself to be wet and cold and sad and vulnerable.

Just for a second though.

'And now for some words of remembrance.'

Rena approached the bench shakily, suddenly very aware that every single eye was trained on her. It was time for her eulogy. She stared down at the bench, a little golden plaque detailing the oldest Hamada's time on this planet and his name. Underneath, a quote had been scratched onto its surface. It was from his favourite book of all time - The Great Gatsby.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

She reached a shaky hand into her bag and grabbed the small deck of cards that she had meticulously planned her speech onto. She took a deep breath before launching robotically into speech.

'Tadashi Hamada was my oldest brother.'

That's it. That's as far as she got before her throat stopped her from going any further. She swallowed quickly, really not wanting herself to cry in front of all these people. Even though they were at a funeral and crying was to be expected. She fumbled with the clasp on her purse and shoved the cards back in, dropping it at her feet. She was ready to bolt, ready to run far away from this place and the bench that reminded her painfully that Tadashi was dead and certainly not coming back. Ready to run away from herself.

But then she looked at the crowd, properly. She looked at Hiro, staring at the ground as though he wished it could swallow him up. She looked at her Aunt Cass, who was wiping her face with a tissue but still had enough strength in her to nod gently at her niece, encouring her to continue. She looked at Honey Lemon and Gogo, weeping and clutching one another. At Wasabi and Fred, who were standing very solemnly with their heads bowed and tears dripping off their chins. And finally, at all the people gathered who never even knew her big brother, and now never will. The least she could do was give them a taste of what they had missed out on.

'About 2 years ago, Tadashi and were sitting under this tree. I had just gotten into SFIT, and he was beyond excited. He seemed to be determind that we were going to be some kind of power duo that took over the school or something. We were sitting under this tree and talking about whatever.' She addressed the bench as she said this, not even feeling even a little embarrassed about talking to a bench. Somehow, it felt right. 'Then, you turned to me with this look on your face. And you asked me what I thought the meaning of life was. I debated for a second, but I told you I didn't know. How could I? It could be an infinite number of things. Knowledge, love, happiness. So how could I possibly come to a conclusion?' She smiled, a real smile for once. 'And then you said that the meaning of life was to stop trying to figure it out. Maybe we're here for a purpose, and maybe we're not. But we can never be sure, so what's the point in trying to figure it out? If we get so consumed with the questions that we cannot answer, then we miss the things that life is about. The good things. Like friends!' She gestures to her small clump of friends in the group of mourners. 'And family! Even the small things, like the butterflies that fly in this very park. Or the way the river sparkles when the sun shines. If we miss these things, then we will become miserable. And, I'd never admit this to you, but you were right.' She stopped for a second, closing her eyes and letting the tears run freely. 'You were always right. You were stubborn, headstrong, bold, protective, loyal, brave and loud. But you were also loving, kind, gentle, compassionate, sweet. Tadashi Hamada you were the greatest man I have ever met. And I say man because you were. You were so wise and mature and you always knew the answers to everything. From the age of 9, you have been able to step into the roles of our parents and dry my tears and make everything better. You were always able to make even the worst of situations bright. You taught me to appreciate everything, to see the beauty in everything in life. Every decision I make, every step I take and every path I choose will be because of you. You were going to change the world, I know you were. In some ways, I think you already have. There's no one else out there like you Tadashi.' She was ugly crying now, but she found that she didn't actually care. 'You are, and always have been, a hero. And now you're gone, and I'll see you again. But until then, I'll have a good one. Just like you told me.'

With that, she staggered forwards and collapsed into the arms of her tiny, broken family.

They were back at the cafe a little while later. Rena was stood in the corner with Aunt Cass, offering weak smiles and trading stories about Tadashi with sympathetic well-wishers. Hiro was sat on a chair in the corner, not even attempting to converse with anyone around him. His shoulders were hunched and his hands were buried in his hair - he looked utterly defeated. Rena tore her eyes away from this sad sight as her friends came over to her and her Aunt, Honey Lemon bearing a cup of tea that rattled quietly as her hands shook. She handed it over to Cass and gave her a gentle nod as Cass accepted it. No one said anything for a second, they just basked in each other's company.

Rena sighed deeply. 'It's so... formal. He'd hate it.' She pulled her hair out of the delicate updo she had spent so long doing that morning and shook it out, dark brown curls cascading over her shoulders. She instantly could feel the benefit, her scalp felt like it was no longer under attack from a tiny thousand little knives in her skull.

Honey Lemon nodded. 'Yeah, he never really was one for stillness and peace was he?'

'Yeah, he was.' Gogo added, smiling at the memories, 'I think he just grew out of it after he realised it could never be achieved with Fred around.'

Fred held a hand over his heart 'it was my solemn duty to make Tadashi Hamada lighten up a bit.'

They fell into silence. Rena sighed and felt a warm hand on her back. She looked up to Honey Lemon smiling at her, tears in her doe-like brown eyes.

'Your speech was beautiful. I don't think I mentioned.'

'Yeah it was. Tadashi would have liked it, a lot.' Wasabi said, lifting his head to look at her.

'Thanks guys, it means a lot.'

'I miss him.' Honey whispered, tears falling freely down her face.

'Yeah.' Gogo said thickly, 'we all do.'

Rena nodded and sniffed, determined not to cry again.

'Where's Hiro?' Cass asked them, looking around the room. Rena followed where her Aunt was looking and realised that he'd disappeared from where he'd been sitting since they'd gotten home.

'Probably upstairs.' She said heavily, 'I'll go.'

'You sure honey?' Cass asked gently, and Rena nodded.

'Yeah.' She replied simply, turning her back on them and quickly heading up the stairs. She could hear them murdering as she retreated. She stopped on the stairs for a second, swallowing thickly and quickly swiping at her eyes. Letting out a shaky breath, she slowly continued upstairs.

Hiro was sat leaning against the wall, his legs stretched out in front of him so that they were touching his bed. Rena carefully stepped over them and slid down to lean against the bed so that she was opposite him. She sat in the same position that he did and she could see her stitches clearly through her tights. She averted her gaze from this slightly grisly sight and looked at him properly. His head was bowed low and there were tell-tale traces of tears on his cheeks. His hands were trembling slightly and he balled them into fists and pressed them to his forehead.

'You okay?' She asked, and he scoffed. 'Yeah okay, stupid question.' She paused, waiting for him to elaborate but he said nothing. She reached over and gently took his hand, bringing it down to rest on his knee.

'Come on.' She said softly, 'talk to me.'

He brought his knees up to his chest, dropping her hand on the floor and sighing heavily. 'I mean, what is there to say?' Rena didn't say anything, she just stared determinedly at her own knees. Hiro sniffed loudly and she ached for him. 'I miss him! And I- I couldn't stop him. He was right there, and I didn't even bother to grab his arm or... or follow him or anything!'

Rena sat up, crossing her legs and grabbing his hand again. 'Hey. No. Stop this. You know what he was like, once he had set his mind on something no one could ever stop him. You know how long I was telling him to try and give up on Baymax because it clearly was not working? And besides, if you followed him in there you would be dead as well.'

'I just.. I wish I could have saved him.'

'Yeah, I know. We all do. But we can't reverse what happened, okay? All we can do now is... is remember him. Honour his memory and move on, you know? Do you think he would want you to spend the rest of your life dwelling on this?'

He nodded. 'I know.' He said this so quietly that Rena could barely hear him. 'It's just.. this voice. The voice in your head that tells you you're ugly. And stupid, and worthless. And that you should've died instead of Tadashi. That Tadashi died in vain because you're probably just gonna get kicked out of school anyway. The voice that tells you you're a piece of shit and that Tadashi would be disappointed in you. You know that voice?'

Rena's heart ached for him. She wanted nothing more than to pull him into a hug and say all the right words and fix everything, but she could scarely move. Because her throat was closing up and she could feel tears pricking in her eyes. And she could hear the voice herself, it was telling her that she was useless. That Tadashi would be able to help. That she should at least be able to say something comforting to her grieving little brother.

'Yeah.' She whispered. 'I know the voice.'

'Does it, will it ever go away? Will I ever be happy?' He said, his voice sounding so small.

'Yes. Oh my god, yes. Hiro.' She breathed, lifting his chin with two of her fingers. Tears were streaming down her face as she said 'you're gonna be happy. You're going to be so fucking happy. You'll meet incredible people and do incredible things, I know you will. One day, you're gonna change the world. I know you are. The voice will go away, and on a sunny day you're gonna wake up and think holy shit I'm so happy. And I will personally kick the ass of anyone that prevents you from getting any less than you deserve.'

'You're only saying that because you're my sister!' He exclaimed, crying loudly himself.

'Because I'm your sister it should matter the most! I know you better than anyone, and I know that you're gonna grow up to be someone who changes the fucking world. I know you'll make me proud - that you'll make Tadashi proud. Now come here.' She grabbed him by his shoulders and he leant into her, hugging her tight. Rena sobbed into his mess of hair, her eyes resting on Tadashi's untouched side of the room.

'I know it hurts.' She whispered, 'it hurts so much you feel like you're going to die from the pain of it. But we'll be okay. We're gonna stick together, and we'll get through this.' She held him at arms length and looked into his eyes. 'Because it is what it is. And what it is.. well it's shit. It's always going to be shit. But we'll struggle though, together okay?'

He nodded. 'I love you.'

'I love you too, bonehead.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI I've just realised that I haven't actually said anything on this story so far. I wrote this basically at the same time I wrote Big Hero 8 part 1 - back in May 2020. Just to make this 100% clear - this is basically Big Hero 8 but Tadashi dies in the fire instead of surviving. It also doesn't follow the film plot haha  
> Hope you love it :)

'Hiro! You coming today?' Rena was stood at the bottom of the stairs with her bag slung over her shoulder and a slice of toast in hand. School had started ages ago, and Hiro had refused to go. The school had understood this and let him keep his place, but Rena knew that the patience of the new dean was wearing thin. Professor Granville was a tall, strict woman. She was a lot different to Callaghan, where he radiated kindness she radiated annoyance and very little patience. She was nice enough, but if he didn't get his ass to school soon she knew he would be kicked out.

When she received no response, she sighed and thundered up the stairs in her clunky boots. Leaning her back against the banister, she crossed her arms and watched as he buried himself deeper into the huge pile of blankets that had accumulated on his bed. 'Come on. They'll kick you out, you know.' She tried to be understanding, she really had. In fact, she was the one that suggested he take a couple of weeks off in the first place. But that couple of weeks had swiftly blended into a far longer stretch of time. They were now halfway through October and he had shown no sign that he was planning on starting anytime soon.

'I'll go next week.' He mumbled, voice sounding extremely muffled as he had his head smothered in fabric.

'You said that last week.' Rena replied, quickly swallowing the last of her toast and walking over to his bed. She tossed a pillow aside and he looked up at her blearily, squinting in the light. He groaned and buried himself back under, ignoring his sister trying to convince him to do otherwise.

'I'm not going.' He said, and his tone was final.

'Fine.' She said, straightening up and staring down at him. 'I won't force you. But I can tell you that you're really gonna regret this when they kick you out. If you want, I'm gonna bring Baymax back there later and update his healthcare chip using Tadashi's notes he left.' She felt a slight pang when she said his name, but it certainly didn't feel nearly as painful as it once had. 'You can come if you want.' Hiro did not bother responding, so she turned on her heel and ran back down the stairs. Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she clicked the small green icon as she rammed her helmet onto her head.

'Rena where are you?'

'Yeah yeah I'm coming Honey!' She said, grabbing her keys and racing down the stairs two at a time. '10 minutes alright?'

'Okay, hurry though because Granville does not look very happy-'

Rena cut her off as she shoved her phone into her pocket, ramming the keys quickly into Tadashi's moped and speeding off down the street. This was the second time she was this late, class started in 5 minutes and she was on the other side of town. Swearing under her breath, she reluctantly pulled the breaks as she stopped at a red light, drumming her fingers impatiently on the handle. Eventually, the light turned green and she sped off downtown, swerving dangerously as she was going so fast. She pulled into the car park and in her haste to get her helmet locked away in the trunk she cut herself accidentally on her keys.

So that is how she stumbled into class, exactly 7 minutes late, cursing, out of breath and sucking on her finger to get rid of the blood. Quickly, she flopped down in her seat next to Honey Lemon, hoping that Granville wouldn't notice. Unfortunately-

'See me after class Miss Hamada.'

The bell rang and Rena hung back as the rest of her class filed out the door. She shoved her books into her bag and tentatively approached her teacher's desk. For a second, Granville did not acknowledge her presence. Rena watched as she slowly wrote something into her notebook before slamming it shut, raising her head to give her a piercing look. Rena shifted uncomfortabley under her stare.

'Professor Granville, I'm sorry. I know it's happened before but it won't again, I promise.'

Granville sighed, resting her chin on her interlocked fingers. 'Miss Hamada, I like you. You work hard and you have a sensible head on your shoulders. I will let you go this time, but if you are ever late to my class again I will not hesitate to put you in detention. Am I making myself clear?'

Rena blinked, startled. 'Yes Professor, um, thank you.' She turned to go, and had her hand on the door handle when Granville cleared her throat. She whirled around, hand slipping off the handle.

'How is your brother?' She had lost her all strictness and for a second she resembled the dean that had come before her.

'Oh.' Rena replied, scratching the back of her neck so she didn't have to look her in the eyes. 'Hiro? Yeah he's uh... he's alright.'

Granville shuffled the papers on her desk as she spoke. 'Can I expect to see him in school anytime soon?'

Rena sighed heavily. 'I wish I knew the answer to that one Professor. I keep telling him to enrol and he says he will but..' She trailed off, feeling awful for ratting him out. 'But he just lost his older brother so I guess I can't really blame him..'

'So have you, and yet you're here.'

'Yeah, well. Someone has to be.'

Granville nodded sympathetically. 'I taught your brother first year, he was one of the brightest kids I've ever encountered.'

'Yeah.' Rena said, smiling at the floor. 'I remember him complaining about you.'

To her surprise, Professor Granville chuckled at this. 'Yes I suppose I am a little strict, but you kids will never reach your full potential if you're not challenged.'

Rena nodded. 'Hey professor.. you're not going to kick Hiro out.. right?'

Granville sighed. 'I am afraid that there is a very long waiting list for this esteemed establishment. I'll give him 2 weeks to enrol, then I am afraid I will have to give his place to someone else. To be honest, he's only kept his place because I have faith that he would do wonders here.'

'He would. Definitely. I'll talk to him, professor.'

'Good, now you'd best be getting to your next class. Oh and Miss Hamada!' She called as Rena opened the door.

'Yes Professor?'

'I know what you're going through, I do. If you ever need me, my door is always open. Now move along before I change my mind about that detention!'

Rena nodded, calling out a muffled thanks as she walked briskly down the corridor so Granville wouldn't see her crying.

A few hours later, Rena was sat with her head leaning on her chin. Professor Blackburn was droning on about ions or something and she could not be more bored if she tried. She looked over at her friends sitting next to her. Gogo and Wasabi were having a silent game of rock paper scissors under the desk and Honey Lemon was sat with her back straight, frantically scribbling notes as Blackburn continued in the same monotonous tone that was sending Rena to sleep. She lifted her head and surveyed the room, Honey Lemon seemed to be the only person actually paying attention. Everyone else also seemed half-asleep, a kid at the front was actually asleep, his head buried in his arms. He was right under the old professor's nose and he didn't even notice.

The thing was, if this was any other class then the whole class would be following Honey Lemon's example. Hiro's nickname for the school was technically correct - they were all massive nerds. Usually, the room was full of people working feverishly, the sound level so low that you could hear a pin drop. Today, however, this was not the case. For one thing, it was hot. Really hot. Blackburn had the windows cracked open, but it did nothing to combat the stifling heat that was making them all a little sleepy. Also, they had covered this before. Rena flicked through her notebook and quickly found almost the exact same thing that he was talking about. He was a genius, but he was getting on and the professor's memory was most definitely slacking. It was also test week. Enough said about that last one.

So, usually, Rena would not have been staring out the window. And if she hadn't have been staring out the window, then she wouldn't see someone staring into the room right back at her. But she did happen to be staring out the window - and that is exactly what she saw. She sat up so suddenly that her chair scraped back, echoing in the almost empty classroom. She was halfway to her feet, craning her neck to get a view of the stranger. They were in... a black cloak? Rena was sure that she'd never seen anyone like them but at the same time they looked so familiar. They way they stood, perfect posture, the way their feet were slightly angled. No... it couldn't be. But if it wasn't, then why did they look so familiar?

'Is there a problem Miss Hamada?'

Rena's eyes snapped back to the front of the room. Professor Blackburn was staring at her angrily and it was only then she realised how everyone was staring at her. Embarrassed, she sat back down in her seat, muttering something about having cramp in her leg. Professor Blackburn glared at her before turning back to the front. As soon as he did this, she stared back out the window, desperately searching for the cloaked stranger. But they'd completely disappeared. Suddenly very exhausted, she buried her head in her hands. Her heart was going a million miles an hour and a tiny flame of hope flickered in her chest. She stopped herself quickly.

No. She thought firmly to herself. It wasn't Tadashi. He's dead.  
\-------------------------------  
'Hey Aunt Cass, I'm home!' Rena called up the stairs, hanging her helmet upon its hook and shoving her keys into her pocket. She turned around to go up the stairs and was almost knocked to her feet when she walked smack into Hiro.

'What the f-' She began, but he clapped a hand over her mouth.

'Shut up!' He hissed, eyes bulging.

'The hell?!' She asked, not really bothering to keep her voice down. Seeing Hiro in her own hallway wasn't particularly unusual, it was the fact that Baymax was lying crumpled up and deflated on the stairs, making some very questionable noises.

'You needed to update Baymax, right?' Hiro asked quietly. Rena nodded, confused and he started shoving her upstairs. 'Grab his charging port and bring it downstairs!' She slapped his hands away, annoyed.

'Hey Honey!' Cass called from the kitchen. Well, her plan to just sneak right past her clearly hadn't worked.

'Hiiiii!' Rena said, trying to sound as least suspicious as possible. She had the sneaking feeling that it wasn't quite working.

'Where's Hiro?' Cass asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

'Oh! He... uh... went to the garage for something.'

'I cannot believe that he finally signed up for school!' Cass exclaimed, beaming. Now it was Rena's turn to look at her in confusion.

'...No he didn't?'

Cass deflated and Rena felt a twinge of guilt for telling her the truth. 'But I'm sure he will soon!' She reassured her quickly, stepping towards her and putting an arm round her Aunt's shoulders.

'Yes. Yes I'm sure he will.' Cass said brightly, composing herself and turning back to the cake batter she had been mixing.

'I'll talk to him. In fact, that's what I'll do now! Right now! I'll just grab Baymax from upstairs and I'll go see him.'

Cass nodded. 'Thank you Rena.'

'It's no problem!'

And with that, she turned her back on her Aunt and trudged up to Hiro's room. She kicked her way through his crap, making a mental note to tell him to actually tidy up. She pushed the screen open and was hit with an unexpected wave of sadness. Tadashi's stuff hadn't been touched since he died, and all of his possessions were sat there gathering dust. Hiro had put his SFIT hat on the end of his bed and she picked it up, carefully running her thumb over the embroidery emblazoned on the front. She placed it gently back onto the bed after a second, sniffing. She then realised that she was crying. Wiping her eyes furiously on the back of her hand, she moved over to where Baymax's charging port was sitting and brushed away the thin layer of dust that had covered it in the few weeks that nobody had touched it, coughing slightly. She watched as the dust gently floated down and settled on the floor next to where she was kneeling. She hadn't been in this section of the room since the fire, and she did not realise the impact it would actually have on her. Because now she was knelt on the floor by his bed, running her hands over the books that lay on his shelves. The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, The Hunger Games, 1984, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Catch 22. The last one was hers, but she couldn't bring herself to take it and put it back on her own shelf where it belonged. Standing, her eyes moved over to his bedside table. One of his comic books was lying face down on the table, he had clearly put it there to save his place. And now he never would finish it. Rena picked up one of his photos, looking at her own face grinning back up at her. She had her arm around Hiro, who was waving his high school diploma in the air victoriously. She placed it back down gently, careful not to disrupt anything else he had littered on the table. There were post it notes stuck all over his alarm clock, various messages and meetings written with his elegant handwriting. Rena picked one up, reading the writing and smiling fondly at it.

Everything is better now.

She cleared her throat and quickly slipped it into her pocket.

'So are you gonna tell me what the hell you've been up to or...?'

Rena was lying upside down on the sofa, her hair hanging down and tickling the floor. She watched as Hiro pulled the heavy red box across the floor, not bothering to help him.

'Didn't... do... anything...' Hiro panted, plugging in the charging port and straightening up.

Rena raised her eyebrow. 'Pathetic. It's not even that heavy. Also! Stop lying.' Hiro ignored her and walked over to where Baymax was leaning against the wall in the corner, babbling about hairy babies and healthcare. She watched in amusement as Hiro pulled the giant robot over his shoulder, trying to guide him towards his charger. However, Baymax had other ideas. He protested loudly before sitting promptly down on the floor, squashing Hiro underneath him.

'A little help!' Hiro yelped in pain as Rena roared with laughter. it was the first time that she'd laughed so hard in weeks. It felt good, and she wanted to savour the moment for just a second longer. She whipped out her phone and snapped a picture before tucking it away, still laughing. Her fingers brushed the stolen post it note and she her laughter died away. She sighed, walking forwards and lifting Baymax up by one of his vinyl arms. Hiro scrambled to his feet and pulled Baymax's other arm around his shoulders. Together, they guided the drunken robot over to his charging port, struggling underneath his flailing arms and legs that refused to co operate. Eventually, Baymax stepped into the charger and started a small whirring sound indicated that he had started charging, and his body began to reinflate. Rena stood back, blowing her hair out her face. Hiro moved over to the computer and powered it on.

'Bonehead. Spill it, now.' He ignored her and Rena walked briskly to his chair. She twirled it around using only a couple of fingers until he was turning to face her.

'There's nothing to say!' He exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

'Right.. so you just randomly decide to leave the house for the first time in weeks with a robotic nurse for no reason at all. Silly me!' She said sarcastically, clapping her head to her forehead in mock disbelief, 'I forgot that that was a perfectly normal thing to do!'

'Seriously, it was nothing. I don't wanna bore you.' He said, shrugging and turning his back on her, typing something that she couldn't see into the keyboard. Rena decided to drop it. Not because she believed him, but because she knew that she could easily get it out of Baymax later when she took him back to SFIT. She had firmly decided that any work that was going to be done on Baymax could be done there. She had been given Tadashi's old lab after she'd begged Granville for it on the first day. It was one of the best labs in the whole school, the circular window especially was brilliant. It let just the right amount of sunlight in, and the view was magnificent. All of his old notebooks and textbooks were on the shelves, as well as plans and sketches for robots that Tadashi had never gotten round to making. She hoped to finish them all for him one day. It only felt right to work on Baymax where everything had all started.

'Hey, Hiro.' She said slowly, remembering what she had promised Cass, 'can we talk?'

'We are talking.' He said, still not looking at her. Rena grabbed a chair and pulled it over next to him.

'Well yeah. I meant properly. Y'know. Seriously.' She flopped down on the seat as he tore his eyes away from the computer screen, looking at her in confusion.

'What's up?' He said worriedly.

'It's nothing bad!' She said quickly, 'it's just.. well... I talked to Granville today.' Hiro's shoulders slumped but she continued nevertheless. 'She said that if you don't enrol soon then she'll give your place to someone else. I don't want to force you to do anything, but I think you should enrol tomorrow. Before it's too late.'

He buried his face in his hands. 'I don't know.. I'll think about it.'

'Alright. Just.. don't waste this, okay? You'll kick yourself in the future if you miss this chance, I know you will. If you can't do it for me then do it for Tadashi.'

He flinched at the mention of Tadashi. 'Yeah. Yeah, I know.'

'Ialsothinkthatyoushouldgettherapy.' Rena said it so fast that it came out in a garbled rush, and Hiro did clearly not understand a syllable. She took a deep breath, knowing that he would not be happy with what she was about to say. 'I think you should get therapy.'

As expected, he recoiled as though she'd just vomited on him or something. 'Yeah, no. I'm not doing that.'

'Why not? You don't have to stick with it if you really hate it, but you could at least try it!'

'Why don't you try it?'

'Stop deflecting. Also, you're the one that hasn't left their room in weeks!'

'And? You think I can't hear you crying in the middle of the night when you think that everyone else is asleep? You think you're doing sooo well, but the only reason that you're not falling apart is that you don't stop moving long enough to! You might think it's healthy - but it's not!'

'I really don't think you're in the position to be recommending anything. It was just a suggestion.'

'Right, well thank you but no.' With that, he turned back to the computer and ignored her once more.

'You're infuriating. I'm going for a shower. Then, I'm to going SFIT. You're welcome to join me if you choose.'

As she was leaving, she heard Baymax say 'Hiro, you would benefit from therapy.'  
\----------------------------  
Rena stepped out the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. She grabbed her phone from the side and turned it over in her hand. Yikes. 32 notifications. She wasn't even in the shower that long... was she? She wiped the screen with the edge of the towel so she could read her messages properly. The first text in a series of many was from a number she didn't recognise. She squinted at the tiny writing through the steam from the hot water.

Unknown: You have been contacted as one of the close friends and/or family members of Hiro Hamada. You have been invited to offer help and support for Hiro. Please do not respond to this message.

Honey Lemon: Did anyone else just get a weird text about Hiro?

Fred: yeah

Gogo: I did, what's going on ?

Fred: idk man

Wasabi: So did I...? Who is it from?

Honey Lemon: Rena? Is he alright?

You: idk i just got out the shower

You: he was alright like half an hour ago tho

She rushed to her room and called Hiro. It went to voicemail and her panic increased.

'Fucks sake.' She muttered to herself as she pulled on her clothes. They were sticking to her uncomfortably but she didn't have time to get properly dry. She bounded up the stairs to his room to find it empty. Swearing under her breath, she ran back downstairs to the kitchen.

'Aunt Cass! Have you seen Hiro?'

'No, he was upstairs last I heard. Why? Is everything alright?' Cass looked at her in concern, clearly catching on to the panicked tone of her voice.

'Yes!' Rena said brightly, edging back towards the stairs. 'Everything is fine! Completely fine! We're just going to SFIT! You know, I think out conversation really struck a chord with him. I'm taking him on a tour around campus.'

'Will you be back for dinner?'

'No! Sorry, I should have mentioned. I completely forgot, you know how school is!'

'Okay, well at least take something for the road.' Cass thrust a ziplock bag of cookies and a bag of chips into her arms.

'Thank you Aunt Cass. And thank you for being so understanding.'

'Of course. Quick hug!' Rena hugged her back but as soon as her Aunt's back was turned, she was running down to the garage as fast as her two legs could carry her. She threw the door open, but the garage was empty. She swore loudly before noticing the splintered bits of wood on the floor. She picked up a plank by her feet and examined it. Tossing it aside, she strode across to the 3D printer. She rested her hand on it cautiously. Warm. So he'd made something on the computer, 3D printed it, trashed the spot and then left without so much a word to anyone else.

And Rena was fuming. You'd think, after everything they had gone through, he would be at least a tiny bit more understanding. But no, apparently not. She pulled her phone out her pocket, furiously tapping into the keypad. She held her phone to her ear, pacing up and down as she waited for the call to be answered.

'Hi! Yeah, Wasabi? We need to find Hiro, any chance you could swing by here in your car? It's a lot faster than the moped. Okay. Cool. Yeah, if anyone else wants to come then I don't see why not. Alright. See you soon. Thank you.'

Not even 20 minutes later, she collapsed into one of the back seats beside Fred. Without a word, she dumped the food her Aunt had given to her in his lap and he tore into it. She did up her seatbelt and turned to Gogo in the front.

'Have you done it?'

Gogo waved her off, tapping furiously into her phone. After a second, her phone beeped and she yelped - 'the abandoned ship yard! GO!'

With that, Wasabi backed out carefully from the garage and drove down the street. Rena sat chewing her nails in her anxiety. She leaned forward and tentatively tapped her friend on the shoulder.

'Hey Wasabi? I know you like to drive safe and all that, but I feel like you're really not understanding the situation here.'

'Hey, I understand. But we want to get there alive, don't we? Okay okay fine!' He added, catching a glimpse of Rena's face in the mirror. She sat back, running her hand through her hair as they sped up. Slightly.

'Rena don't worry!' Honey Lemon reassured her gently, 'Hiro will be fine!'

'Yeah. The little man's gonna be fine, he's with Baymax.' Fred said, spraying her with crumbs.

'At the abandoned ship yard! In literally the creepiest corner of the entire city!'

'Stop worrying. Woman up.' Gogo said casually chewing her gum as though searching for Rena's little brother was an everyday activity.

'Easy for you to say. Also, how did you find his location from a text?'

'An expert does not reveal the secrets of her craft.' Gogo replied smoothly, twirling her phone around in her fingers. Rena rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat, pulling her knees to her chest as she watched the lights flash by.

'What's he doing there anyway?' Asked Wasabi, 'it's pretty dark out, shouldn't he be in bed or something.'

Gogo scoffed. 'How old do you think he is? It's literally like, 7:30.'

'I don't know! Seriously though Rena what is going on with him?'

Rena groaned and buried her head in her hands. 'I don't know! I mean, he lies in his room for weeks on end and makes no move to do anything but then all of a sudden he decides to go on a random walk with Baymax? And now this? To be honest, this is probably just his latest stupid venture on his path to self destruction.'

'Is he coming to school?' Honey Lemon asked, conceded.

'I have no idea, but I need to convince him to come as soon as possible. If not, Granville is gonna kick him out and he'll just go back to bot fighting. And I can't let Tadashi down like that.' She felt like she was going to cry, and so stared determinedly out of the window and focused purely on not doing this. Her fingers traced the post it in her pocket. Everything is better now. What bullshit.

About 10 minutes of silence passed before Wasabi turned into a creepy alley. They pulled up outside a shipping container, and there was Hiro caught like a deer in headlights. Rena practically fell out of the car in her haste to get out. She ran towards him and hugged him tight before letting go and kicking him hard the shins. He yelped in pain and backed away from her as she started shouting.

'What the FUCK do you think you're playing at?! No calls, no texts! Do you have ANY IDEA how much you worried me?! Being here in the creepiest part of the entire city? Hiro, I thought you died!'

He stared at her, a look of both guilt and surprise on his face. Rena choked back a sob and turned away from him. That was when she saw Baymax in some kind of makeshift armour. She was about to open her mouth to question it but Gogo got there before her.

'Uhh, why is Baymax wearing carbon fibre underpants?'

'I also know karate!'

Hiro threw his hands up in exasperation. 'You guys need to GO! Get out of here!'

'Don't push us away Hiro, we're here to help you. That's why Baymax contacted us.' Honey Lemon said softly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

'No please just leave! I'm fine I-'

'Those who suffer a loss require support from friends and loved ones!' Baymax offered helpfully.

'I cannot believe you.' Rena said, pinching the bridge of her nose. 'I'll ask you once more - what are you doing here?'

'Nothing! Just taking a nice evening walk.. helps with my... pubescent mood swings.'

'I'm just gonna pretend that you didn't say that.' Rena said, staring at him. Hiro nodded in embarrassment.

'It may help Hiro if we share feelings. Who would like to go first?' Asked Baymax.

'Ooooh I wil!' Fred exclaimed excitedly, jumping up in the air in his eagerness to share his thoughts. 'Okay, hi everyone! My name's Fred and it's been 30 days since my last- HOLY MOTHER OF MEGAZON!'

Rena turned her head so fast her neck cracked. She yelled out and staggered backwards. Her hand grabbed Hiro's sleeve, fingers going white she was holding on so tight. Towering above them was a cloaked figure suspended by a huge moving tower. He was wearing a really creepy red and white mask and a black cloak that billowed out behind him when he moved. Rena furrowed her eyebrows, wondering where she recognised the mask from. It then came to her, where she had seen the man before - SFIT! The guy she had seen out the window was wearing exactly the same cloak! He wasn't quite the same, he was taller, slightly stockier. She stared in a shock mingled sense of shock and confusion as he hauled a huge shipping container above his head, too frightened to comprehend another coherent thought.

Honey Lemon snapped a photo of the villain, the flash blinding him. He roared in anger and Rena could hear Wasabi's screams ringing through the night. She watched in horror as the shipping container was sent spinning through the air towards them. Pulling Hiro towards her, she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the impact. But it never came. Baymax had sprung in front of them, catching the huge structure before it crushed all of them. She opened her eyes, still clinging onto her little brother. He was hunched over slightly, trembling as he looked around. Wasabi had dived to the ground, Gogo and Honey Lemon were pulling him to his feet. Fred was stood a few feet back, his mouth open in a perfect O. In any other situation, it would have been comical. Baymax was stood at the front of the group, bent so low with the weight of the huge structure that he was almost touching the ground.

'The car!' Gogo yelled, pointing back towards Wasabi's vehicle parked a few feet behind them. 'Get to the car! NOW!' She had grabbed Honey Lemon's hand as the two of them stumbled towards the car together. Rena didn't need telling twice, she grabbed Hiro's wrist and turned to pelt back towards the car. But he wriggled out of her grip, rushing towards Baymax and shouting instructions at the robot. Baymax hauled up the shipping container, throwing it over his shoulder and getting into position to attack. Rena screeched something incomprehensible at them as she stormed towards Hiro and grabbed his arm again. He tried to twist out of her grip, but she was ready and held fast.

'Come on! Baymax can handle that guy!'

'I don't care! Hiro, you can't!' She found herself being reduced almost to tears as she tried to reason with him, knowing that she would not be able to handle it if he died as well. He didn't say anything, and she pulled him forcibly back to the car. She threw the door open, shoving Hiro in and falling in beside him. He scrambled over her, pounding on the window.

'We can't let him escape! We just CAN'T!' He yelled angrily, pulling at the door handle. Wasabi clicked on the child lock and Rena seized his arm furiously.

'STOP IT!' She thundered, so angry that he dropped his arms instantly. His eyes widened and she turned to get a glimpse of what he was staring at. A black mass was heading towards them, and she ducked just in time as the roof caved in above her with an almighty smashing sound.

'Wasabi!' Honey Lemon squeaked in terror as the masked man advanced towards them.

'Yep! Okay! Goodbye Mr Kabuki man!' Wasabi yelled in terror, slamming his foot on the pedals of the car. The car screeched as it shot backwards out of they alleyway and they shot off down the street. For a second, Rena thought they were in the clear and she had began to relax when she noticed Fred craning his neck to stare out the back window, practically jumping up and down in his seat in excitement. She turned her head to see what he was looking at, and for a second she thought it was nothing until a huge black mass had rounded the corner, the so-called 'Mr Kabuki Man' riding it, in complete control. And he was heading straight for them.

'Hiro.' She breathed, 'explanation. NOW!'

He ran his hands through his hair, panicked. 'He stole my microbots and started the fire! And I don't know who he is!'

'You mean to tell me,' Rena snapped, 'that some random masked guy STOLE your microbots, STARTED THE FIRE and you decided to just go after him on your own?! Oh my GOD you IDIOT!'

'To be fair!' Hiro yelled over the sounds of Gogo and Wasabi arguing in the front, 'I didn't realise he would try to kill us!'

'Oh come on!' Honey Lemon said brightly, 'we don't know that he's definitely trying to kill us!'

Rena would consider this a fair point, if it wasn't for the fact that he threw a car in front of them. Wasabi swerved just in time and her stomach turned sickeningly. 'No!' She yelled, 'I think he's definitely tryna kill us!'

'We are under attack from a supervillain people!' Fred exclaimed, eyes shining with excitement. 'How cool is that?! I mean, it's scary! Obviously. But how cool?!'

Suddenly, the car skidded to a halt.

'WHY HAVE WE STOPPED?!' Gogo seethed, rounding on Wasabi.

'The light is red!' Wasabi said, pointing to the traffic light above them.

'Right. That is IT!' Gogo hissed. She slammed her hand down on the dashboard, leaving behind a sticky little glob of gum. She clambered over to the driver's seat. Wasabi protested as she seized the wheel from him, but it was futile to even bother to try and reason with her. Rena had never seen her so fired up in her life, and she had to admire her guts as the car came back to life. Gogo's driving was a hell of a lot more dangerous than Wasabi, but at least it was putting more distance between them and the villain so determined to kill them.

'Okay, but I still think we should stop and take this guy on!' Hiro said confidently, leaning against the door as he tried to get them to agree with him. Gogo veered the corner, crashing into some dustbins as she mounted the pavement. The door sprang open suddenly, and Rena saw the look of surprise on Hiro's face for just a second before he had gone crashing into the road below. She let out a blood-curdling scream, but before she had even managed to process what had happened Hiro was back. Baymax lent into the car, clicking his seat belt in for him. He gave a helpful message on road safety before straightening up and disappearing out of sight once more. Rena grabbed Hiro's hand, squeezing it tightly.

'Jesus.' She muttered to him, only managing to get one word out between desperate gulps for air. 'Please. Stop. Trying. To. Get. Yourself. Killed.' She gasped and Hiro nodded, his face ashen. He squeezed her hand back, not saying a word. Rena clung to him as they sped recklessly across the city. Baymax could say that he would be fine with the seat belt, but she was not willing to take any chances.

'You know.' She said to him, choosing to ignore the harsh wind whipping at her face and the imminent danger of both Mr Kabuki and Gogo's stupid driving. 'You could have gone to the police!'

'Yeah, I did!' Hiro belted, 'but they didn't believe me!'

'I wonder why!' Rena screeched as Gogo headed straight towards the train tracks. She wasn't the only one that screamed as they went hurtling towards an oncoming train. Luckily, they were going so fast that they didn't even scrape it. Rena couldn't say another word as they drove on, fearing that if she did she would vomit. She was slammed into Fred as they took off down the road. Suddenly, the world was in darkness and they were encased in a tunnel of microbots.

'We're not gonna make it!' Wasabi screeched in pure terror as the tunnel became smaller and smaller.

'We're gonna make it!' Honey Lemon shouted, her voice too full of positivity for Rena's liking.

'We're not gonna make it!'

'We're gonna make it!'

'WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!'

'WE'RE GONNA MAKE IT!'

With that, they crashed through the end of the microbot tunnel. Microbots were sent cascading everywhere and Rena could hear Fred's screams of delight over the roaring in her own ears. But their victory was short lived, because her brief feeling of relief was quickly replaced by fear as she realised that they were plummeting towards the water. She gulped in a great breath of air as the car hit the water. She reached out for Hiro as they sank, but he wasn't there. She turned her head frantically from side to side, scrabbling desperately for her little brother in the car. Her chest was hurting and her head swam as she struggled not to breathe in a great gulp of salty water. In this terrifying new situation, she could only think one clear, coherent thought.

Her little brother had completely disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

Rena's head broke the surface of the water and she took in great gulps of air. Her lungs seared as the fresh air entered her system and she felt lightheaded. She clung to Baymax as they floated to the side. Wasabi was the first one onto the pavement, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto the ground beside him. Rena lay there for a second, trembling with both cold and fear. Her body was suddenly wracked with hacking coughs, and she crouched there as her eyes watered and the water made its way back up her oesophagus, burning her throat. She wiped away the tears that had collected in her eyes and managed to get herself into a sitting position. Her eyes quickly surveyed the setting. Her friends were either on the floor coughing or standing up and coughing. Baymax was offering advice to Fred, who had decided to take in a great gulp of sea water and was now vomiting it back into the water. Rena could tell that he wasn't taking in a word that the robot was saying to him.

'Baymax,' Rena spluttered, moving and sitting on her knees. 'Where's Hiro?' Her voice was surprisingly calm, but she was shitting herself. 'Is he.. did we leave him at the bottom?' She added faintly, gasping pathetically between every word. She watched as Baymax straightened out, his head tilted towards the water. She held her breath as he scanned for Hiro in the water - knowing full well that if he said he was down there that there would be no chance that Hiro would be getting out alive. Baymax turned and addressed her when he spoke.

'My sensors detect no sign of life down there.'

Rena breathed out in relief, her head falling down to rest in her hands as she processed this information. However, the relief that he wasn't dead didn't last long as she heard the sounds of creaking behind her. Her head snapped around so she could see what was going on.

The masked guy was above them, once again towering above them on huge pedestals of microbots. He jerked his arms upwards and beside him arose another tower of bots. Rena let out a strangled cry as she realised that they were carrying a tiny, limp form atop of the ridiculously high tower. Panic shot through her as though she had been struck by lightning, and a million thoughts raced through her head. Solutions about how to save him, ideas and theories about how to get up there, how to keep the villain distracted. Wondering if he was dead. But before she could even begin to formulate a proper plan, she realised that the tower was shrinking. The bots were sliding over one another, and they were coming towards her. Automatically, she recoiled. But then she realised something that made her cry out hysterically once more.

The bots were carrying Hiro towards her. He looked dead. Oh god, he was dead. He'd killed him. She scrambled to her feet, swallowing down a scream as she could feel the panic rising in her throat like it had the night Tadashi died. Not again.

Before she knew it, she was running towards the bots. She knew it was stupid, she knew that running headfirst towards the person that was trying to kill her was probably a bad idea. But she didn't even care. That was her little brother lying there! She couldn't stand there and watch! As she came closer, she realised how small and.. broken he seemed. She skidded to a halt, standing in a pool of microbots up to her ankles. She knelt down in the pile, lifting his unconscious form gently, as though she was scared that she might break him. As soon as she'd lifted him, the bots retreated back to their "master." Rena settled Hiro down on the ground , resting his head on her lap. Shakily, she moved her fingers to his neck and waited for a second before she felt a pulse.

'Oh my god.' She whispered, bowing her head and feeling tears drip down her nose. It was okay. He was alive. He was okay. She gently stroked his hair, murmuring softly to him despite him not being awake. She noticed a gash on his cheek and knew that this probably wouldn't be the worst of his injuries. But he was alive. And for now, that's all she could ask for.

She raised her head once more to see the man disappearing. She ran through a thousand questions in her head. Who was he? Why did he have the microbots? Why'd he kidnap Hiro only to give him back literally straight away?

She focused her attention back on Hiro as he stirred. His eyes slid open and he groaned as he sat up.

'Hey.' Rena said in concern, 'you okay?'

'Yeah. Yeah I think so.' He replied shakily. Rena stood an extended an arm out to him and grabbed his arm. She pulled him to his feet, but he instantly collapsed back on the floor, crying in pain.

'I'm sorry! I'm sorry!' Rena gushed, bending down to examine him. 'Where does it hurt?' He pointed a finger to his ribs and she lifted his t shirt anxiously. A nasty blue/green bruise was spreading across his side. Hiro winced as she gently prodded him, asking him questions and looking into his eyes to make sure that he wasn't concussed. It wasn't long before Baymax had waddled over and taken over, cleaning his cut and giving him some mild pain medication.

'Please can we get out of here?' Honey Lemon asked after everyone had made their way over to where the two Hamada's were sat.

'Please.' Wasabi said, wrapping his arms around himself and shivering. 'This place is super creepy.'

Rena glanced over at Hiro anxiously. 'Where are we gonna go? The cafe is on the other side of the city, as are your places.' She said, gesturing to Gogo, Honey Lemon and Wasabi as she said this.

'I know a place.' Fred said. Without another word, he veered left and began walking away from them.

Honey Lemon shrugged. 'What have we got to loose?' She said before following him. Rena turned her attention back to Hiro, who was still sat on the floor. She bent down and Hiro draped an arm over her shoulder. They rose, the latter wincing as he stood unsteadily. They set off after everyone else, a little slower as Rena was basically carrying him.

'I'm sorry-' He started, but she cut him off.

'Don't worry about that now. I'm still angry but I'm glad you're alive.'

'Okay.'

They didn't say anything else as they headed to Fred's house. Rena's mind was going at a hundred miles an hour - she was desperately wracking her brains to see if she could figure out who that masked guy was. Aside from a sneaking hope that it was Tadashi, she had come up with nothing. But no sooner had she thought this then when she erased it from her mind completely. Tadashi was dead, and she wasn't stupid enough to believe that there was some secret conspiracy that meant he was still alive. But she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that something was wrong. Aside from the fact that this weird masked guy had decided to steal Hiro's invention and then conjure up an evil companion out of nowhere. In fact, she was so consumed with her own theories that she crashed right into Wasabi's back, not realising that he had suddenly stopped. The cry of pain from Hiro jerked her back to reality, and she was able to steady herself right before the two of them went crashing to the ground.

'Sorry!' She said, cringing as Hiro gritted his teeth, clearly trying not to cry.

'S'okay.' He said, clutching his side. He pulled away from her and leaned against the wall, sliding his eyes shut and breathing heavily through his nose.

'Hey knucklehead! I am NOT in the mood for one of your stupid pranks!' Gogo shouted loudly, looking in the direction of the huge house behind them. Rena turned and understood instantly why they had stopped. In front of them Fred had bounded up to the front door. A huge front door - larger than any other door Rena had ever laid her eyes on. And this house was HUGE huge, and ridiculously fancy. The front of the house was polished and clean, gleaming white and gold in the semi-darkness. She whirled around look at Wasabi standing beside her.

'HOW have we never been to Fred's house before?' Wasabi shrugged in response, his jaw practically on the floor in shock.

Fred was stood at the front of the house, arms open wide as the huge door swung open behind him. He called for them to join him inside and it took a second for anyone to actually register what was happening.

'Is this actually happening?' Gogo asked, stepping forwards into the grounds tentatively, as though she was scared that she was going to be shot or yelled at or something for trespassing. But nothing happened, and she picked up the pace as she headed towards the warmth.

'I'm dreaming.' Wasabi said in disbelief as he followed her. 'Seriously. Nothing today has been real.'

Rena turned back towards Hiro as they were left alone out on the street. Baymax had followed Honey Lemon, being too distracted by the pretty lights and butterflies to be of any use. 'You okay?' She asked anxiously. His face had gone grey.

'Yeah.' He murmered, 'yeah. Fine.' He limped forward and his legs folded out from under him. Rena dove forward and caught him before he smacked to the floor.

'Did they drug you or something?' She asked in concern as she hauled him to his feet.

'Nah, Baymax would have been able to pick it up. Probably.' He ran a sweating hand through his head and sighed. 'I'm just.. tired.'

'How,' she grunted as the pulled him up the stairs, 'are you tired? You are literally in bed all day every day.'

She could see Hiro's scandalised stare out of the corner of her eye and sighed. 'Sorry.'

'I don't sleep.' He mumbled, 'too loud.'

'What is? Me?'

'No. Just... everything. I can't! Everytime I close my eyes I see the fire and-'

'Hey guys! I was wondering where you got to! Welcome to mi casa! That's French for front door.' Fred was stood there, beaming and throwing his chest out as he introduced his house. Hiro pulled himself off his sister, wincing. She grabbed his wrist instinctively before he fell to the floor. He stumbled slightly, hand moving to his ribs. Then, he pulled his arm out of her grip and followed Fred down the hall as he boasted loudly about the expensive paintings lining the hall or whatever. Rena jogged to catch up with them.

'So that's it?' She hissed at Hiro, making sure to keep her voice low. 'What, you're just gonna say shit like that and leave it there?'

'Pretty much.' Hiro retorted and she shook his head at him. He ignored her and followed Fred into his room. Barely taking notice of the weird paintings and sculptures on the walls, he collapsed into a chair and began to scribble furiously on a piece of paper already on the table. Rena took no notice of what he was doing, she was too focused on the weird room she'd just found herself in. Superhero gear was staring at her from all angles, and she had to laugh at a painting of Fred riding some sort of white tiger, looking decidedly more shredded than he really was. She had to admit, it was cool. Strange, and a little childish, sure. But cool. She strode over to an immense bookshelf, running her fingers over the brightly coloured comics and graphic novels lining the wall. She knew Tadashi would love his collection, and felt a pang as she realised that he'd never see it. Clearing her throat, she turned away from the garish books and shivered. She was still soaking wet, and she'd only just then realised how cold she actually was. She wrapped her arms around herself as she surveyed some kind of weird super suit.

'I am concerned that your body temperature is still low.' Baymax said from where he was stood beside Hiro.

Rena scoffed. 'Yeah, no shit.'

But her attitude quickly changed when she turned and saw that he was leaning over Hiro and glowing a soft red. She practically threw herself around him, feeling the warmth radiate through her body. She could feel his vinyl dip around her as everyone else gathered around, and for a few seconds they stood there basking in the robot's heat. Rena sighed deeply. For this one second, everything in the world felt right.

But of course the universe wouldn't let her have that for longer than about 17 seconds. Hiro lent around Baymax, brandishing a quick sketch of some kind of bird in flight. She squinted at it, failing to see why he was showing it to them. Maybe he just thought it looked cool.

'Does this mean anything to anyone?' Hiro asked.

'YES!' Fred exclaimed joyfully, and Hiro's face lit up. 'It's A BIRD!'

'What? No!' Hiro sighed, exasperated. 'The microbots were lifting... something. It had this symbol on it.'

'Beats me.' Said Gogo, stretching out and sighing.

'Yeah, I don't know about anyone else, but I was a little too concerned with the whole "not dying" thing to be able to pay particularly close attention to cryptic symbols.'

Hiro shrugged, pushing Baymax off of him as he moved over to the sofa. There were general sounds of angry protest as Baymax straightened out and waddled over to stand behind Hiro. Huffing, the rest of the gang draped themselves on the sofa and the surrounding areas.

'Okay.. any reason you decided to show us that?' Wasabi asked, looking as confused as Rena felt.

Hiro sank down into the cushions on the sofa, wincing slightly. He dropped the drawing and for a second he didn't say anything, instead choosing to watch it float gently down to the ground. 'It was on that.. structure that my bots were lifting.' Fred snatched up the drawing, peering at it closely. He was clearly trying to figure out some kind of conspiracy or theory on who this villain was, and Rena thought it best to leave him to it. It was probably best that he didn't contribute.

'So.' Honey Lemon offered, but she finished before she had even started.

'So.' Rena replied, chewing her nails. 'We know that there is a masked weirdo roaming the city.'

'Yokai.' Fred said, nodding wisely.

'Uhh, yeah. Sure. So there's this masked weirdo. He stole Hiro's bots. And we don't know who he is. Or where he is. Or what he wants. I say we go to the police.'

'He started the fire.' Hiro piped up suddenly, and she stared at him.

'They... what?'

'The fire. It wasn't an accident. They.. they killed him' This last bit sounded slightly choked and she looked at him, a sudden bold of understanding passing between them.

'Oh.' She whispered softly, suddenly understanding the burning desire to catch this guy. She decided not to mention how she had seen him (or at least, she thought it was him?) outside SFIT the previous week. Thinking about it more would only freak her out a hell of a lot more than it already was. She coughed loudly, as though this would dislodge the lump that had formed in her throat. She seized a cushion and hugged it tightly through her chest. Breathing out shakily, she ran her shaking fingers through her hair. She'd felt so many weird emotions in such a short space of time and she felt utterly and completely exhausted.

They killed him. They killed Tadashi. Oh god, she'd seen the person that had started that fire. She had seen the person that had burnt her brother to a crisp. And, instead of standing up to him, she had cowered in a car. She had cried and screamed and been utterly useless whilst this person had hunted them down, aiming to send them to the same place as Tadashi. She buried her head into the cushion, suddenly deciding that she was going to put flowers and a copy of his favourite book by his bench the next day. She missed him so much. Sometimes, she would lie awake at night feeling as though the pain of it was going to strangle her. Yes, she understood her little brother's clear desire for revenge.

'No.' Gogo said, looking between the two distraught siblings on the sofa. She popped another gum bubble and stared at them, her head tilted to the side. 'We're not going after him! Is that seriously what you're thinking?'

'No... no!' Rena stammered quickly, 'no. I don't want to loose anyone else.'

The room was silent for a second before Honey Lemon laughed nervously. 'Yeah! That would be ridiculous! And we don't even know anything about him - how the hell would we be able to track him down?'

'I have an idea!' Fred exclaimed excitedly, jumping to his feet. He ran over to his bookshelf, scanning the comics quickly before tossing one over his shoulder. It was sent spinning through the air and smacked Wasabi in the face, who yelped in pain. Gogo deftly caught another one that he had chucked to her. Rena was ready as he tossed one that went straight towards her head.

'Freddie?' Honey Lemon asked quizzically, 'what do these have to do with this situation?'

Wasabi held his out at arms length, squinting suspiciously at the man on the front. 'Yeah what does this made up crap have in common with Yokai?'

'Don't you see?!' Fred boomed in exasperation. 'There's clearly a link here!'

'Well explain it then dummy!' Snapped Gogo, slamming her comic down onto the floor in anger.

Fred sighed dramatically and began to explain, clearly very proud of what he had discovered. 'These villains all have one thing in common. They're rich, stuffy, old white dudes that are bored and desperate for more money. They would do anything! This guy,' he said impressively, snatching a comic out from Hiro's hands 'this guy blew up an entire city because he wanted revenge on a man that stole his expensive, limited edition watch! These guys have no morals, and they have hurt many people to get where they are. They will stop at nothing to get what they want. And who do we know like that?'

'Alistair Krei.' Rena said automatically, remembering how angry he had been after Hiro had refused to sell his bots to him. 'Yeah..' she added slowly, 'it makes sense.'

'Oh come on!' Gogo said irritably, throwing her hands in the air 'it's rubbish! Complete and absolute rubbish! This is real life - not some dumb comic! The point is, we don't know who this guy is. We don't know a single thing about him. Therefore, there is no chance that we can ever "apprehend" him.' She sat back, blowing her hair out of her face and glaring at the overexcited boy stood in front of her.

'His blood type is O-. His cholesterol levels are-'

'Baymax!' Hiro yelled, jumping up and giving out a cry as he did this, but he moved on quickly. He continued rubbed his side and grimaced as he continued. 'We can do this. We'll just have to find a match and we can catch him!'

'Riiight.' Gogo drawled, clearly unimpressed. 'But we'd have to scan everyone in the city, and that might take, y'know, forever.'

'No no no! I'll just upgrade his scanner!'

'Hiro, I think this is the worst idea you've ever had.' Rena said, but she secretly was rooting for him. She wanted to get revenge on the bastard that had caused them so much pain, the guy that had removed the sparkle from her little brother's eyes.

'Maybe, but hear me out. Please?' No one said anything, so he took this as an indication to keep going. 'Right, so I upgrade Baymax's scanner.' He was getting excited now, and pulled himself off the sofa unsteadily. He began pacing up and down the room, lecturing them on how they were gonna take this guy down. And it was weirdly captivating. Rena watched him in interest as he raved about all the tech he could use and what they could be doing.

'But we cannot be superheroes!' Wasabi cried when he had finished. The poor guy was practically tearing his hair out as he tried to talk sense into the enigmatic 14 year old. 'We're fucking nerds!'

'He has a point Hiro.' Honey Lemon said gently, as though she was scared of upsetting him.

Gogo sighed, already annoyed by what she was about to say. 'Tadashi Hamada was our best friend. We need to bring this guy to justice. I'm in.'

'Yeah. Yeah. Why not.' Rena said, convincing herself that this was really a good idea and not an incredibly stupid one that was going to get someone killed. She pushed these anxieties down and ignored them. That was a problem for another day. 'Fuck it. Tadashi deserves more.'

She looked over at Hiro who nodded energetically at her, grinning.

'GUYS!' Fred shouted way too loudly from behind Rena. 'Do you know what this MEANS? Our origin story begins! WE'RE GONNA BE SUPERHEROES!'


	5. Chapter 5

'Hey, Tadashi. Nice to see you.'

Rena approached the bent and gently placed down a bunch of roses and a copy of The Great Gatsby onto the bench. She lent the flowers against the back of the bench and slid the plastic covered book onto the seat of the bench. 'Thought you'd want something to do.' She added, chuckling to herself at her stupid joke. She collapsed onto the bench, stretching her arm out along the back and gazing at the beautiful sights before her. The river down below her sparkled in the early evening light and the pretty flowers danced in the soft wind. Her fingers automatically traced the little golden plaque that was etched into the bench and she sighed. She felt peaceful here, she felt like she was at home. Which was stupid, but this was the closest she would ever get to her dead big brother. Everywhere else she went, she felt hollow. Like a huge part of her was missing. But here? It was okay. The hole in her heart could never truly be filled, but this would be the closest that she would get.

'I miss you.' She said to the air. She should feel stupid, but weirdly enough this felt normal. It felt right. Besides, there was no one about anyway. 'I mean, that's a given I guess. I don't think I'll ever stop missing you. Aunt Cass made cookies this week, your favourite. Oatmeal and raisin. Which is gross. I mean, what weirdo has oatmeal and raisin cookies as their FAVOURITE? Anyway. Time for you to get caught up. Well, today is Wednesday. Tonight, we're working on our super suits. I haven't told you yet, but we're gonna catch the guy that killed you. Yeah, you're welcome by the way. Hiro's doing better now. He's staying busy with this, and next week I'm going to force him into school. I will, I swear to you. Once we catch this guy and this is all behind us, we're going to school. I don't know how I'm going to get him there, but I swear to you I will. You won't have died for nothing. It still hurts to say that, y'know? I really want it to stop hurting. But I don't think that pain will ever go away. I thought it would, I thought I was beginning to get over this. But no. Sometimes, the pain of you not being there to take care of him really gets to me. I try not to let it, because I know that's not what you would want. But it does. And I guess that's okay. I'm okay, I am. At least, I think I am. It's just... how do I escape the hollow feeling that you've left me with? I want to be able to carry you with me, I want to remember you and honour you but I don't know how. How do I fill the huge empty space in front of me? Any ideas big bro?' She paused, craning her neck towards the sky and sitting there for a while as the stars slowly started to appear. 'Are you up there?' She whispered, pointing at a particularly bright star directly above her. 'I hope you are. I hope that, wherever you are, you're happy. I hope you're at peace. And while you sleep on a sunny day, or in the pouring rain, know that I'm thinking about you. I haven't forgotten you yet. I love you. I love you so fucking much.' Tears welled in her eyes and she made no move to wipe them away. She lifted her head forwards again to look out at the park. 'It's late, I'd best be going. Hang in there big T.' She stood, turning back and looking at the bench for a second. She kissed two of her fingers and pressed them to the shiny golden plaque depicting his name. She heard a rustling from behind her and she snapped her neck around so fast that she almost landed on her ass. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, but there was no one there. But Rena couldn't shake off the awful feeling that someone was watching her. She was about to investigate when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Annoyed, she pulled it out and answered it.

'Hey Hiro. What?'

'Just making sure that you' are still grabbing the stuff we need front SFIT. I texted you a list.'

'I will! I'm on my way now.' She said, jogging down the path and pulling the moped keys out her pocket.

'Okay. Don't be long! Everyone else is coming soon and I really want these suits finished by Friday so we can test them and find the guy over the weekend.'

'Are you sure we'll be ready so soon?' Rena asked, holding the phone between her shoulder and cheek as she unlocked the trunk of the moped. 'Don't we need to train and shit?'

'Have a little faith!'

'Whatever you say. Gotta go now. Heading to SFIT. Stay safe and don't get killed whilst I'm gone. Can you manage that?'

'Yes I think I can manage - OH MY GOD! A SERIAL KILLER? NO STOP STABBING MEEEE!' And with that, the line went dead. She shook her head, smiling to herself as she climbed onto the back of Tadashi's moped.

As she was driving away, she could see a mysterious figure out of the corner of her eye. She slammed the breaks on and craned her neck to see what the hell was going on, but the stranger had disappeared. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion - was someone following her? She shook her head and set off again. She was probably just being paranoid. There was no way she was interesting enough to stalk or anything. Besides, that masked guy would be wanting to stay in hiding. Who would just choose to roam the city in a creepy mask and cloak? Yes that was it, she was just feeling a little more alert because of what they were planning on doing. She was in the middle of the city now, there was no real danger. (Aside from the off-chance that she would get stabbed or shot or robbed or killed in a car accident. But she chose not to think about those things.) She probably just heard a bird or something. Or, you know, any random person that was in their full right to be in a public park. Whatever.

She pushed it from her mind as she pulled into the parking lot. She shoved her keys in her pocket and tucked her helmet safely under her arm. She bounded up the stairs into the building and stopped briefly to say hi to those in the public lab. She pulled her phone out of her pocket as she entered Tadashi's, no, her lab. It was her lab. Without even looking up from the phone screen, she tossed her helmet onto her desk and clicked on the lights. She dropped her backpack on the floor and began bustling around in the draws of her desk, pulling out random bits and pieces that Hiro had asked for. In fact, she was so busy looking for a spare actuator she knew she had somewhere that she didn't see Professor Granville sneak into her lab behind her. Granville cleared her throat and Rena jumped, dropping the box of screws that she was holding.

'Hi! Uh, Evening Professor Granville!' She said as she dropped to her knees, scooping up the screws that had gone rolling away from her across the room. Granville didn't move to assist her. Rena hadn't expected her to.

'Evening Miss Hamada.' Granville said coolly. 'And what are you doing here at this late time?'

'Oh, I'm just picking up some stuff.' Rena said sheepishly. She got to her feet and shoved the box of screws onto the overcrowded table behind her.

'This lab needs a good clean.' Granville said distastefully. Rena felt her face burn red. She was a messy person! Her entire work process was the exact opposite of the former occupant of the lab. Where Tadashi was neat and organised, Rena was like a flurry. She didn't care about organising her stuff, she just liked to get things done. But she could see what the professor meant. There was stuff littering all the surfaces she could see - discarded plans, books, tools, and even fast food wrappers. In her defence, they were Fred's.

'Yeah I know.' Rena replied sheepishly, dropping her gaze to the floor. 'I have been meaning to organise everything. I'll do it this week.'

Granville nodded. 'Good. You are extremely lucky to have this space Rena, and I would expect to see you treat it with at least a little more respect in the future.'

'Yes of course. I'm sorry.'

'I came to ask you about your brother, again.' Granville said, giving her a piercing look. 'I would like to remind the both of you that I expect him to enrol here soon. I have already given you plenty of warning Miss Hamada, and if I do not see him here soon then I will have no choice but to revoke his place.'

Rena sighed. 'I'm sorry professor. I did talk to him, and he is going to. I'll make sure that he's enrolled soon.'

'Tell him he has until the end of the week. I have attempted to contact him but I have a feeling that he is ignoring my emails.'

Rena smiled weakly. 'To be fair professor, I don't think he's ever read an email he has been sent in his life.'

'Well, make sure to tell him. Good evening Miss Hamada.'

'Evening professor.'

Granville turned and swept out of the room. Rena dragged a hand through her hair, sighing. She really wasn't in the mood for another one of those conversations with Hiro. He'd only just managed to actually drag himself out the house more than once a week. She plucked her phone from the side and double checked Hiro's list. Yep, she had everything apart from that actuator she still needed to find. She walked over to the table by the window and shifted through a stack of papers. The actuator was underneath them, sat on an old notebook of Tadashi's. She grabbed the actuator and knocked the notebook off accidentally with her wrist. It fell to the floor and sprang open on a random page. She cursed her clumsiness and picked it up, about to just snap it shut and place it back on the desk when a scribbled note in the margin caught her eye.

Project Silent Sparrow. Callaghan. Krei.

That was it. She read it over and over again, trying to make sense of the cryptic words. Her eyes moved to the sketch on the page, it was just a circle with hundreds of equations scribbled all over it. The scribbled date at the top told her that he had drawn it only a week before he died. What did he mean? project Silent Sparrow?

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she turned and dropped the notebook back onto the desk. It was probably nothing. Probably just some kind of extra credit project he was doing, hence Callaghan's name and a project title. And Krei. Maybe Callaghan wanted him to pitch it to Krei. Yeah, that would be it. It was nothing to worry about. Whatever it was, she would never know. So, logically, there was no point in losing sleep over it. Grabbing her bag and helmet, she shoved the actuator inside and switched off the light. She texted Hiro to tell him she was coming home and made her way down the dark hallway and back outside to the parking lot. She rammed her helmet onto her head and jetted into the night.

It was early Saturday morning. Rena emerged from the side of Fred's house and made her way to where Hiro was standing under a weird kind of pavilion behind the huge house. She was wearing her new orange supersuit and she was pleased to discover that it fit her perfectly. It was a pleasing shade of orange with specially adapted gloves and boots. When she flicked her wrist, a shoot of plasma was sent spinning through the air towards her intended target. She could then flick her wrist again and be sent hurtling through the air towards the original spot of plasma, where she could hang to the wall or ceiling or wherever with no bother. She hadn't actually tried it, that was what she was about to do. However, that is what Hiro said it could do and she trusted him enough to believe that was he was saying was probably true. She had to hand it to him, he had done some incredible work. Obviously they had helped him out, but he did most of the work when the the rest of the gang was still at school. It was a pretty brilliant feat for a 14 year old kid to do this in a week.

'Looks good.' Hiro said as she approached. He scribbled a note and circled her as he spoke. 'Does it fit properly? Is it too heavy or anything?'

'No.' Rena replied, 'it's great.'

Hiro grinned toothily at her. 'Awesome. Right, you know the drill. Get the mask.'

He stood back and gestured to Heathcliffe stood in front of them. He was wearing a mask that Honey Lemon had painted to look exactly like the one that Yokai was wearing. Rena stood for a second, formulating a plan in her head. Of course, she could just walk up to him and take the mask straight off his head. But where was the fun in that? Instead, she reached her hand up and towards the ceiling. She flicked her wrist once and fell forwards slightly as the plasma shot out. It matched the colour of her suit perfectly. She flicked her wrist again and went flying into the sky. She whooped with glee before she slammed into the ceiling.

'Note to self.' She muttered, activating the plasma in her other hand and clinging to the ceiling. 'Don't do that again.' For a second she hung there before kicking her legs upwards and sticking to the ceiling on all fours. She must've looked like a cat in a cartoon, clinging to the ceiling with its claws. She quickly scrambled across the ceiling, moving awkwardly upside down. She withdrew the plasma and felt herself falling, but she managed to use the goo in her shoes to soften her landing slightly. She stumbled forwards and crashed into Heathcliffe, but he was like a brick wall instead of a person. He barely even flinched and she composed herself. Grabbing the mask, she turned back to Hiro: he had a stupidly big grin on his face.

'Nice landing.' He snickered and she stuck her finger up at him before launching the mask directly at his face. He hit it away, laughing.

'I hate you.' Rena said, but she was smiling too.

'Thanks. Well, the suit works. Just focus a bit more on your landing and you're good.' Hiro said, scribbling a note down on his clipboard.

'Sure thing knucklehead.'

'Okay piss off now.'

'I know you love me really!' She called over her shoulder as she strode casually over to where everyone else was sitting.

'Sup.' Said Gogo, admiring her gear as she flung disks all over the garden.

Rena sat down next to Honey Lemon and excitedly admired her purse. 'This is so cool! I must admit, I was doubtful when he said this was the idea that he ad for your suit - but it's incredible!'

'I know right!' Honey Lemon gushed. Her fingers were a blur as she typed something into her purse and produced a shocking pink little ball. She held it out to Rena who took it cautiously, weighing it up in her hand. It was very light, and slightly squishy. She raised it over head and tossed it towards the bushes, where it exploded into a huge cloud of pink foam.

'That's so sick!' Rena exclaimed excitedly.

'I wanna eat it.' Wasabi said, staring at the cloud in awe.

'Wouldn't recommend that.' Rena smirked at him. 'Anyways. In a bit peeps, I'm out.'

They stared at her in confusion and she saluted ironically to them. She stuck her arm out behind her and then she was gone. She was sent hurtling through the air and managed to ready herself just before she got a mouthful of roof dirt. Slowly, she stood and walked unsteadily across the tiles. A tiny part of her was terrified that she was going to fall to her death, but the other part didn't care. It was thrilling: she hadn't been on the roof of anything since Tadashi died. If you slid open the window above Hiro's bed, you could clamber out onto a teeny tiny balcony that couldn't really be considered a balcony. They used to do it all the time, clambering out and pulling themselves up on the drain pipe to traverse the roof. It was incredibly dangerous, but that was why it was so fun. Of course, Tadashi would never let them go very far and instead preferred them to just sit with their legs dangling off the edge. Half the time Rena ignored him, and she remembered fondly the way that she would tease him whilst clinging onto the chimney. Well, he wasn't here to worry about her now. She spread her arms out and ran across the roof, laughing with pure glee at her rule breaking.

'See?!' She called up to the sky. 'I'm fine!'

Her foot slipped slightly and she decided it was probably time to sit down. She perched on the edge, directly opposite the pavilion in which Hiro was standing. She dangled her legs off the edge and watched below as Fred bounded out from the house below her. Despite being so high up, she could clearly hear the pure joy in his voice. Despite her previous reservations about the whole superhero thing, she had to admit that she was enjoying this. It was great fun to use these really cool suits that belonged in a fictional universe. Also, she couldn't help but feel relieved that Hiro was perking up at last. She knew he was very close to breaking, and deep down knew that would have broken her too. Tadashi's death made her realise how heavily they relied on one another - like two swimmers in a pool. If one of them went down, so would the other. And then they would both drown.

She rested her head on her hand as she watched Fred in his suit down below her. She laughed quietly as she watched him jump circles around a frantic looking Hiro. She watched as Hiro stood back and gestured for Fred to get the mask. She lent back and realised how calming it was up there. The breeze was gentle and the morning sun was warm on her face. She felt peaceful up there, watching her friends being happy and safe below her. For a second, she let herself relax. Yeah, she could get used to this.

Of course, this temporary relief lasted all of 10 seconds.

It all happened so fast. One second, everything was fine. Fred was jumping around the place ecstatically whilst everyone watched on. Then, Fred encircled Heathcliffe with a huge, burning ring of fire.

Time seemed to slow down. Rena watched in horror as Hiro staggered backwards away from the fire. He landed in a heap on the floor, and even from where she was she could see that he was shaking. She could hear her friends shrieking for Fred to stop, and she couldn't find her voice. She clambered to her feet, almost slipping off the roof in the process. She sent out her plasma and before she knew it she had landed crumpled on the ground next to Hiro. She rolled over in the dirt and crawled over to him, not taking any notice of the fire herself. If she stopped for too long to think about it, she would be in the same position that Hiro was. And that would not be helping anyone.

She was reminded painfully of the night of the fire as she stumbled towards her little brother. His chest was heaving up and down and his eyes were wide as he stared at the inferno.

'Gonna...die...Tadashi...fire.' He managed to get out between desperate breaths.

'No, it's okay. Right? Listen to me. Focus on my voice. And breathe.' Rena breathed in hugely and he tried to copy her, taking in about three frantic breaths in the time it took her to take in one. Rena nodded encouragingly at him. 'Yeah! That's it. Again. See? You're doing it. Just focus on my voice.' She whispered gently, lifting his chin and making him look at her in the eyes. Tears were streaming down his face and he was shaking like a leaf. Rena moved in front of him and draped his arm around her shoulder. She needed to get him away from the fire, and fast.

He whimpered as she tried to move him. 'Can't!' He gasped, still gulping air in way too quickly.

'Ignore what I'm doing. Just focus on my voice, yeah? Breathe. Okay, we're just going to move over here by the bushes alright? Breathe.' She grabbed him by under the armpits and rested her head on his shoulder, speaking directly into his ear behind his mop of hair. Gently, she moved backwards and dragged him slong with her. He didn't even attempt to protest this time. 'Yeah.' She continued in his ear, trying to distract him. 'That's it! Breathe.' She breathed in deeply again and he copied. His breathing was slowing down gradually. 'That's it. Just like that.' They were far enough away from the fire that Honey Lemon was extinguishing with the chemical balls from her purse. Hiro was slumped forwards on the grass, head in his hands and trembling. Rena waved away a concerned Gogo and Wasabi and turned her attention back to him. She shuffled forwards on her hands and knees and he collapsed into her.

After a while, his breathing had returned to normal and he had pretty much stopped shaking. He didn't pull away from her, instead choosing to stay wrapped in her arms. Rena lent her head atop of his and tried her hardest not to cry.

'You alright?' She asked quietly into his hair.

'Yeah. Sorry.' He pulled away from her and wiped his eyes on the edge of his sleeve.

'No, you don't need to apologise. Not like you can help it.'

He gave her a weak smile and looked out towards the pavilion. Fred had stopped leaping about like a lunatic and the rest of their friends were gathered in a circle, heads bent low as they discussed something. Rena had the sneaking suspicion that they were debating about what had just happened. She got to her feet and extended out an arm to help him up. He stood quickly, brushing himself off.

'Yeah. I didn't think that would happen.' He said as they slowly made their way back over to the house. Rena didn't quite realise how far she'd dragged him.

'But it did and it doesn't matter now. Just-' she stopped and he turned to look at her 'therapy?' She asked tentatively.

Hiro froze and stared at her. 'NO!' He burst out suddenly, shaking his head from side to side and looking like an over excited dog trying to dry them self.

She held up her hands. 'Okay! I won't mention it anymore.' But she did make a mental note to update Baymax's healthcare chip so he would be more knowledgeable on mental health. Then, she might be able to subtly force him to get help.

'Hi!' Hiro said quickly as they approached their friends. Honey Lemon opened her mouth to ask him something but he kept going before she could. 'Well done - your suits are looking good and you all did great. I'm gonna go get Baymax and then we can get up high, scan the city and we can be off. Be right back!' With that, he turned and ran back towards the house.

'I- wow alright them.' Said Gogo as they watched him leave.

'Is he okay?' Honey Lemon asked Rena worriedly.

'Umm yeah. I think so.' Rena said, chewing her lip anxiously.

'I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't realise that would happen!' Fred said quickly, looking very concerned that he'd managed to traumatise Hiro or something.

Rena shook her head. 'It's fine. It's not your fault anyway. Not like anyone could see that coming. Let's go sit down and wait for whatever Hiro's planned for Baymax.' For the past week, they'd constantly asked him to be dropping hints on what he'd planned for Baymax's gear but he had insisted upon keeping it a secret.


	6. Chapter 6

They were sat there for quite a long time waiting for Hiro. So long, in fact, that they'd decided to start messing with their gear. Honey Lemon was standing near the house launching balls at Fred, who was setting them alight. The game ended when one of the balls exploded and destroyed a statue at the end of the lawn. Honey Lemon was almost reduced to tears, apologising profusely to an uncaring Fred. Gogo and Rena were wetting themselves with laughter whilst she tried to use the balls to stick the statue back together. It's safe to say that it wasn't working.

Rena sat down next to Wasabi, wiping her eyes still. It was stuff like this that she missed the most after Tadashi died. For a long time, there'd been scarcely any laughter at all. She smiled to herself. Progress.

Just then, Hiro rounded the corner and beamed at them from underneath his helmet.

'You guys ready to see Baymax?'

'Hell yeah we are!' Fred exclaimed joyfully as he ran over to join them. Honey Lemon had finally given up with the statue and sat herself down next to him.

Hiro called for Baymax and Rena craned her neck to see the giant robot as he rounded the corner. 'Woah.' She breathed. For the first time ever, Baymax actually looked intimidating. He was standing impressively in the garden, the sun gleaming on his armour. Fred whooped loudly and even Gogo seemed to be impressed. Then, he slouched forwards and waved at them and the image was ruined. He was back to plain old Baymax - following a butterfly around as it fluttered around him in circles. Hiro ran forwards and seized his arm.

'Show them the thing!' He said, his face shining with childish glee.

Baymax extended his fist out. 'Ba la la la la la.'

'No!' Hiro said, exasperated. 'The fist! Y'know!' He punched the air in front of him and Baymax seemed to finally understand what he meant. He lifted his arm and his fist was sent hurtling through the air, crashing into the wall behind the already destroyed statue. Rena almost fell off her chair. Whatever she was expecting, it certainly wasn't that. The reactions of her friends were similar. Fred had jumped up and was dancing around them yelling about how 'the rocket fist makes Freddie so happy!' Wasabi had his head in his hands, muttering about the clear danger of what they were doing as though he had only just realised. Honey Lemon was sat there with her mouth hanging open and Gogo was laughing at all of their over-dramatic reactions.

'Hey that's not all!' Hiro boasted as the fist came zooming back to its owner and slotted perfectly back into place. He ran over to Baymax and stepped up onto his back. His hands glowed slightly as he attached them to his back. 'Rockets!'

Rena watched as Baymax's feet began to glow and he hovered a few inches in the air. Her heart skipped a beat when she realised what was happening. 'Oh my god!' She yelled, hands over her eyes.

'What do you think?' Hiro yelled happily.

'I think you're an idiot!' Rena shouted up to him, 'and if you die doing this then I'll kill you!'

Hiro shook his head, laughing. 'There's nothing to worry about! Baymax has this completely under control, right buddy? Thrust!'

For a second, she believed him. Then, Baymax went shooting straight up into the air and was only up there for about 3 seconds when he came plummeting back towards the ground. He pulled out of his dive just in the nick of time before they crashed into the floor. Unfortunately, that meant that they came flying through the air towards them. Rena realised what was happening a second too late. She tried to dive out of the way but she wasn't quick enough. Baymax went crashing straight into her and when he shot back up into the sky, he was also carrying another reluctant passenger. Rena screamed as she clung onto Baymax's arm.

'PUT! ME! DOWN!' She shrieked as they went further and further upwards. She squeezed her eyes shut and clung on even tighter, knowing that if she loosened her grip for even a second then she would go plummeting to her death.

'DO YOU HAVE SUPERHERO GEAR ON OR NOT?!' Hiro shouted back down at her. She could barely understand what he was saying over the roaring of the wind in her ears. But she got the gist. Still not understanding why it was so difficult to just fly back down to the ground, she swallowed her anxiety and forced herself to open her eyes. Baymax pulled into a sickening dive and her stomach swooped. Trying to ignore what was actually happening, she prised her hand off the robots arm and activated the plasma. She reached up to his shoulder and placed her hand tentatively to the smooth surface of his armour. It stuck fast and she felt a little more confident as she raised her other arm up.

'DO ME A FAVOUR AND AT LEAST TRY TO FLY STEADY!' She shouted up at her brother. Baymax was wobbling about all over the place and she definitely did not appreciate it.

'WORKING ON IT!' Hiro retorted. After a minute or so, Rena deemed it safe enough to be able to move her legs. Slowly, she made her way up Baymax like some kind of weird, life-sized beetle. She reached her arm up and smacked Hiro on the shoulder. He lent over and grasped her wrist, pulling her up to sit beside him. Rena collapsed next to him, gripping onto Baymax's armour for dear life. That didn't stop her from prising her arm off and elbowing Hiro in his side.

'Dickhead. What was stopping you from putting me down?'

'Look.'

She lifted her gaze and felt the air leave her lungs. They were flying above the city, heading straight towards the Golden Gate Bridge. The many lights of the city were twinkling below them. The morning air was crisp and cold and the city was just beginning to wake up. Rena stared in awe at the tiny people moving below them and the way that the colours blended into one. They headed towards the bridge unsteadily and suddenly the life of the city was lost behind them. Rena cried out as they sped straight towards a truck. Hiro screeched desperately at Baymax and they went straight up into the air and landed atop of one of the huge red columns. Rena blinked, finally being able to lift her hands that had previously been frozen into place.

'That was so fast. What the fuck.' She gasped, pulling her helmet off her head and taking in a huge gulp of air. She tried to avoid looking down at the terrifying sea below them.

'Yeah would you really want to miss this?' Hiro said, grinning at her. He lent down and patted Baymax. 'Well. That's enough for today. What do you say buddy?'

'Your neurotransmitter levels are steadying.' Baymax said simply, addressing Hiro.

He looked as confused as Rena felt. 'What does that mean?' He asked the robot nervously.

'The treatment is working.'

Before either of them could process this, he lent backwards and dropped down the side of the bridge. Rena screeched as they went plummeting down to the water, squeezing her eyes shut and bracing for the impact of the freezing water.

But it never came. Baymax pulled out of his dive and in seconds they had cleared the water. Hiro whooped from beside her and she opened her eyes, drinking in the scene. They crossed the water and came back into the city. Baymax expertly weaved in and out of the signs and buildings, going so fast that everything was a technicolor blur below them. Rena's mouth was wide open in awe as they sped through the city. There was no other word for it - it was absolutely stunning.  
\---------------  
Rena jumped off Baymax, landing shakily on her feet beside Hiro. She collapsed onto her knees and he dropped down next to her. For a second, no one said anything as they watched the city.

'I'm never taking the bus again.' Hiro said, shaking his head in disbelief.

'Too right. That was... that was...'

'Sick!' Baymax filled in for Rena. She stared at him and he said 'It is just an expression.'

'Yeah.' She said, shrugging and looking back towards the buildings.

Baymax looked at Hiro. ' Hiro, your treatment is working effectively. I can deactivate if you say that you are satisfied with your care.'

Hiro looked scandalised. 'No!' he burst out, appalled. 'We still need to catch this guy! What are you thinking?!' Rena placed a hand on his arm but he shook her off. 'You can't deactivate! Get up and fire up that sensor!' He snapped irritably.

'Hiro-' Rena began, but he ignored her.

Baymax straightened out and scanned the city. 'I have found a match.' He said, turning around and pointing behind them. 'On that island.'

'Good. Let's head back and go there now.' Hiro said stonily.

'Hiro there is something else-'

'Shut up Baymax. There's no time now.' He snapped as he climbed onto him.

Rena stepped towards and he stuck his arm out to pull her up. She clambered on next to him and said nothing as Baymax turned and flew back to Fred's house, knowing that if she did Hiro would probably rip her head off.


	7. Chapter 7

Not even an hour later, they'd touched ground on the island not so far from the city. Rena jumped off the robot's back and surveyed the scene. So far, there was no sign of the masked guy. But there was a suspiciously high amount of crates that were labelled to be dangerous. She decided not to pay attention to any of them, it wasn't like they were going to touch them or anything.

'Guys I really think we should go back. Look, there's a skull face on that crate! A SKULL FACE!' Wasabi hissed nervously. Rena sighed. Of course someone was going to dampen the mood. She ignored him, and it seemed that everyone else had the same idea.

'Hiro, I think there is something you need to know. I-' Baymax began, but Hiro cut him off.

'Shut up Baymax! Tell me later.' He snapped. Rena was about to tell him to shut up and let Baymax speak when Wasabi practically jumped on her and almost knocked her flying.

'LOOK! That says QUARANTINE! Do you know what QUARANTINE means?!' He exclaimed in a complete frenzy.

'Alright, alright! Get off me you great lump!' She grunted, shoving him off. 'Stop stressing!'

He groaned and buried his head in his hands. 'Oh my GOD we're gonna die here!'

'Relax you big baby.' Gogo said, clapping a hand on his shoulder as she strolled past. He shook his head again but shut his mouth.

'How cool is this?!' Fred marvelled as he looked around at the creepy surroundings. 'This reminds me of the time that-'

'Fred.' Hiro said, his voice dangerously low. 'Shut up. Now.'

Clearly stressed by the urgency of his voice, Fred clamped his mouth shut. Rena whipped around to where Hiro was looking and she saw a shadow move across the floor and a slight rustle. For a second, no one moved and then Wasabi shrieked and all hell broke loose. Fred was shooting flames at anything that moved, catching half the crates on fire. Wasabi was running in circles, frantically slicing the air as Gogo threw her disks around with no actual target to aim for. Rena couldn't really do much in the smoke and confusion, all she could do was lay low and try not to get sliced by Wasabi's blades. But it was odd that the villain hadn't decided to attack them with the bots. Then she realised it was because there was no villain and instantly facepalmed.

'GUYS!' She screeched through the chaos, 'STOP!' She tried to run forwards but she was caught in one of Honey Lemon's weird creations and went flying to the floor. It was just her luck that the smoke cleared just as she was lying sprawled on the ground. She tilted her head and a bird was staring back at her. 'Well done.' She drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm. 'You really showed that bird who's boss.'

Honey Lemon stepped forwards and helped her to her feet. 'Hey at least we know our gear works! Sorry, by the way.'

Rena straightened up and her neck clicked as she stretched. 'Don't worry about it.'

Hiro cleared his throat loudly and motioned for them to follow. They crept round the side of the building, not daring to make a sound. Although Rena highly doubted that it mattered - if the masked guy was nearby he surely would have heard all that racket. They circled the building a couple of times before they realised that the only way in was a locked door with a keypad to get in. Honey Lemon approached the door and looked at the keypad.

'Four of the numbers are slightly faded. It's the natural oil present on our hands so it's only a four number passcode. That leaves us with 5,9,8 and 3. We just need to work out what order they go in.'

Rena stood behind her and peered at the keypad. 'The 5 is the most faded, so the most oil was present when the number is pressed. Then-'

'Yeah, we could stand around all day and work out the code.' Gogo said, examining her fingernails casually. 'Or Wasabi could just cut a hole in the wall.'

'Yeah alright that could work.'

They all watched Wasabi as he stood there for a second, frozen.

'Do I really have to? This might make a lot of noise and-'

'Just do it, fish brain.'

'O-okay.'

He stuck his arm into the wall and began carving a whole. It didn't take him long, and the circle wasn't perfect but it served its purpose just fine. They clambered through the hole and found themselves in a long, darkly lit corridor. The only light was coming through the creepy red lights lining the ceiling (and the huge hole behind them) and every tiny noise echoed hugely. Hiro shrugged and crept towards, Baymax right behind him. Rena followed slowly, feeling extremely alert. She felt like any second the masked man would jump out and bury them in a pile of bots or hold her in a chokehold against the wall or something equally as horrible. They walked down the endless corridor for about ten minutes, and Rena was in such a trance she never realised that Fred was singing until he was practically screeching in her ear.

'Fred's angels! Duh duh duh! Harnessing the power of the ancient amulet they found in the attic-'

'Fred.' Wasabi hissed, 'I will laser hand you in the face!'

Fred shut up, but Rena could still hear him singing under his breath. She should have been annoyed, but she found his stupid singing a welcome distraction from the nagging sensation that something here was deeply, deeply wrong. (That is, apart from the fact that a masked lunatic was somewhere near them and he wanted them dead.)

'Hey guys! You should see this!' Honey Lemon murmured from behind them. Rena turned to see what she was looking at, she was leaning into the doorframe to another room. Rena jogged over and they pushed the heavy door back together. It was stiff and dusting - it looked as though it hadn't been touched for years. Rena stepped cautiously into the room and whistled as she looked around. It was huge, easily the size of the SFIT cafeteria. A little away from them was a set of stairs that led up to a small platform with a desk and computer on it. Ahead of her was some kind of circular structure with the bird Hiro had showed them. Her footsteps echoed loudly in the huge room and she winced with every one.

'What is this place?' Honey Lemon whispered in awe from next to her and she shrugged.

'Hell if I know.'

'The computer's on.' Gogo said, appearing suddenly to Rena's left. 'Let's check it out.' She was there in a matter of seconds and the rest of the gang ran as fast as they dared without making a lot of noise. By the time Rena had made her way up the stairs, Gogo had loaded up some security footage dated a few years prior.

'Wha-?' She whispered in confusion, but Hiro elbowed her to keep quiet as the on screen characters spoke.

They were watching some kind of weird KreiTech Project. Rena watched as Krei boasted to some important looking Government people about his new project. A time machine.

She felt sick as she watched Krei ignore advice from the crew and sent a young girl into the portal. Honey Lemon gasped from beside her as the portal tore itself apart and the footage stopped on a blurry image of Krei lunging across the desk. For a long minute, no one spoke.

'They shut down his project.' Hiro whispered.

'And Krei wants to rebuild it.' Wasabi replied, nodding along.

'It's a revenge story!' Fred muttered, half excited and half horrified.

Rena opened her mouth to say something when she felt a dark shadow across her shoulder. She didn't even get time to scream before a huge chunk of wall was sent through the air towards them.

And that would have been the end of them if it weren't for Baymax. He hauled the rock up and dust rained down on them. Rena had been knocked to the ground by the impact, and she was half buried under a pile of smaller rocks. Straightening out and brushing herself off, Rena felt like she was going to be sick. Now she knew what that awful structure was, she knew that she definitely did not want it to be activated again.

'Okay.' She muttered as she helped Hiro to his feet. 'What now?'

'Get the mask.' Gogo said darkly before zipping off after him. He'd disappeared through the hole that he had torn into the wall.

'Is there an actual plan though?' Wasabi asked.

Rena shrugged and turned away from him. She pointed her arm up at the ceiling and clung up there for a second whilst she formulated a plan. Underneath her, she watched as Fred jumped after Yokai, Honey Lemon hot on his heels. Hiro was climbing onto Baymax and Wasabi was stood in the dust where they'd left him, shaking his head in bewilderment. She turned her attention back to the battle at hand. Using her plasma to swing across the room, she manoeuvred quickly to the room next door where she could hear the general sounds of battle. She must have looked like some kind of weirdo swinging across the room as though she was using monkey bars, but she didn't have time to waste on being self-conscious.

When she entered the room, her plasma shrunk so she was just clinging to the ceiling on all fours. She had no idea what her plan was, but she knew that swinging into the battle like that would basically be an open invitation for Yokai to pin her to the wall or crush her or something. So there she was, stuck to the ceiling, desperately trying to think of something to help her friends. They desperately needed help. Honey Lemon had the cool idea to turn a fairly large segment of the floor to ice and this was working really well: microbots were being sent skidding across the floor instead of grabbing her and pinning her to the floor.

That is, until Fred came crashing into her and they both lay collapsed by the wall.

Gogo was running circles around the masked guy, using her disks to slice through the walls of microbots heading towards her. They were being sent flying everywhere until a spike of them came from behind her and she was sent sliding towards Fred and Honey Lemon. Gogo fell over the latter's leg and collapsed on top of her: all three of them lay still in a pile of tangled limbs. Wasabi was stood bravely, slicing through the bots that went hurtling towards him. They had trapped his legs, but he was still able to slice through them despite barely being able to move.

Rena let out a long breath through her nose. She needed to distract Yokai - he couldn't attack her, Hiro and Wasabi at the same time. Her eyes flitted around the room, desperately trying to think of something that she could do. Then the ceiling shifted slightly underneath her hand and she had an idea. She pulled her hand away quickly and the ceiling tile came with it. She let go of the ceiling entirely, the only thing connecting her there being her shoes. She was then able to run along the ceiling. So, feeling very sick, that is what she did.

She ran upside down towards where Yokai was standing on top of a huge tower of bots. She thanked the stars that he hadn't noticed her coming, he was too distracted trying to pin Baymax against the wall. Fortunately, the robot was surprisingly fast so he was easily able to deflect the microbots trying to capture him. Rena crouched behind his head, silently praying that he wouldn't turn around. She waved her hands behind his head, locking eyes with her brother. His eyes widened and he gave a slight nod, realising what she was gonna do. He lent forwards and said something to Baymax, who then stopped flying around in manic circles. The masked guy gave a muffled cry of fury (or was it confusion?) and Rena seized her chance. She swung the ceiling tile back behind her head and brought it down towards him. Because she was stood upside down, it caught him roughly on the chin, snapping his head up towards the ceiling. Instantaneously, the bots that had Wasabi collapsed and he came running towards the tower as the guy recovered. He was using all his concentration on keeping upright, clearly keeping Rena's friends at bay was too much for his dazed mind to handle.

Rena was becoming increasingly more dizzy with hanging upside down. Deciding that it was probably the safest time to do so, she dropped down and landed on the moving tower of microbots. She used her plasma to stick there, not moving for a second as she concentrated on not spewing everywhere. It was difficult, especially when her head was pounding and she was hanging onto a literal moving mass of tiny robots. She squeezed her eyes shut as she was flung wildly from side to side, thankfully Yokai hadn't noticed her there. She could hear Fred and Gogo shouting and the splats of Honey Lemon's chemicals as they hit the floor. Her heart skipped - they were back in action.

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked out, but they still had no formal plan. Everyone was doing the same as before, and they were no closer to getting the mask. She was the best shot they had, what with her being so close to the man himself. She lifted her hand carefully and pressed her fingers to the microphone in her helmet.

'Hello?'

'What is it?' It was Hiro, and he sounded frantic speaking in her ear.

'The hell are we doing now?'

'We need to- oh my god SHUT UP BAYMAX! Sorry - he won't shut up.'

'Maybe listen to him then?'

'Hey guys! This isn't the time!' Gogo interrupted.

'Yeah just - distract him, all right? I'll try to get close to him but he can't see if I'm gonna get it off him.'

'Hell yeah!' Fred roared, and she could feel the blistering heat of his flames from a mile off. Yokai jerked sharply out of the way of the inferno and she was almost thrown off. Rena winced and shifted slightly, trying to move back upwards towards him. For a second, she was tempted to see if she could find Hiro somewhere in the chaos to see if he was alright, but she decided against it. Her priority was the mask - she knew that he would never forgive her if she gave up this golden opportunity.

Feeling like a very unskilled rock climber, she climbed cautiously sideways across the tower until she was staring directly up at Yokai's back. He still hadn't noticed her, and she suppressed a laugh. How stupid do you have to be to not notice a bright orange teenager coming upright behind you? Sure, he was fighting a lot of other teenagers, but still. She loved her friends dearly, but they certainly were not very good at fighting. Even as she thought this, she watched as Wasabi was thrown against the wall, wincing as she saw his head crack against the rocky surface. Not even a second later and Honey Lemon was thrown carelessly next to him. Baymax landed next to them, Hiro jumping off as the robot knelt down to help their friends. Yokai seized his chance and sent microbots towards Hiro, pinning him against the wall harshly. Rena winced at the angle that his arm was twisted that and felt a sudden burst of anger. Before she knew what she was doing, she had jumped onto Yokai's back.

'STOP HURTING MY FRIENDS!' She screeched in his ear. He thrashed around wildly, trying to shove her off. But Rena wasn't going to just let him win that easily. She clung on tight, not even needing to use her plasma. She couldn't get the mask though - all of her energy was focused on trying to stay on him and not being thrown to the ground. He reminded her of some kind of wild horse, desperately bucking to try and throw her off. In any other circumstance it might have been funny. Her fingers found his neck and she started squeezing. She didn't want to kill him, at least not directly - maybe just make him pass out.

'Rena STOP!' Someone yelled from below her.

'I'M NOT GONNA KILL HIM! GET THE FUCKING MASK!' She screamed as Yokai clawed desperately at her hands around his neck. Was it really that difficult for someone to just come and grab it? After a few seconds, she realised that no one was coming and reluctantly let go. He gave a strangled roar of fury and lifted his mask slightly to gulp in air. Rena felt a little bad, but before he could do anything else she grabbed the corner of the mask that was pointing towards her. He gave a roar of fury and lunged at her, but it was too late. He collided with her mid-air as they began to fall down.

Without thinking about it, she rammed it straight onto her own head and concentrated on getting the bots to catch them before they were killed or seriously injured. The bots shot upwards and caught her and the unnamed villain on a platform, where they promptly smashed into one another. Rena rolled away from him and had an idea. She forced the bots to extend upwards, making a precariously high platform atop a very thin tower of bots. Before the villain had even managed to stand, she had jumped up and walked backwards off the platform. She let herself fall freely for a second before they caught her again. Taking inspiration from Hiro at the showcase, she began to walk down towards her friends using the bots as steps. She ran over to where they were collected at the wall in which the villain had thrown them at.

'It's over.' She breathed, the smelly mask muffling the sound of her voice. She reached a hand up and wiped her bloody nose with her arm. She suspected this had happened when she crashed into her platform of bots. Probably not the safest option to save her ass, but to be fair she didn't really have enough time to formulate a plan when she was falling towards her death.

'Impressive thinking.' Gogo nodded as she stared up at the villain, alone on his microbot platform high up in the sky.

'Thanks.'

'Did you see who it was?' Hiro asked and she shook her head. She hadn't managed to get a proper look of his face in her haste to get away from him. Speaking of getting a close look at people's faces, her eyes flicked from friend to friend. Hiro had a nasty cut on his lip and Gogo was sporting a black eye. Wasabi and Honey Lemon were lying hunched against the wall, only half conscious. Fred seemed to be the only one of them to escape without injury - most likely due to his ridiculous suit.

'Are they alright?' She said anxiosuly, gesturing to where her friends were lying.

'Yes. They have sustained no dangerous injuries.' Baymax said, standing up and looking at her. 'I will scan you now.'

She nodded, feeling relieved that they were both okay. 'Thanks Baymax.'

'I am a healthcare assistant. It is my job, there is no need to thank me. You have sustained no significant injuries either, but here is a tissue.' He produced a tissue out of nowhere and she accepted it gratefully. The blood had started to flow into her mouth and it was really gross.

'Right. Now what?' She asked thickly.

'We capture him and take him to my house where we tie him up and question him.' Fred said, as though they were all stupid and this was clearly the obvious plan of action. Why wouldn't you?

'Or we could just kill him.' Hiro said, shrugging casually as though this was something that they discussed everyday.

'Woah woah woah! WHAT?!' Gogo snapped, staring at him in disbelief.

'What?! Rena basically tried to murder him!'

Rena rounded on him. 'No I didn't! I let go, did I not? If I wanted him dead then he would be dead! It's not like I didn't have the chance to easily kill him - are you forgetting that I saved him before he fell to his death?'

'We never agreed to kill him.' Gogo said angrily, jabbing him in the chest. 'We're not murderers.'

'Okay! Jeez!' Hiro said, raising his hands in surrender to their angry outbursts. But Rena knew him well enough to know that he had still not ruled out this option.

'Hiro, I need to tell you-'

'Baymax, be quiet. We're thinking of a plan.' Hiro ordered bossily.

'Right. Well we need to think of something quickly. It won't be long before he formulates some kind of plan to get out of here. I wouldn't be surprised if he had backup.'

'I say we tie him up.' Fred suggested, shrugging. 'We need to talk to him, and we can't let him escape.'

'That's... surprisingly intelligent.' Gogo puzzled, staring at the monster in front of her.

'Okay, we'll do that then.' Rena said simply. She turned her attention to the bots and they melted at her silent command. The tower shrank and the platform merged to form metal bonds that surrounded the mysterious villain and held him tight. He struggled uselessly against his metallic prison, but he might as well have not bothered. They held fast, and Rena was incredibly grateful for it. They were certainly in no state to fight him again: even if the villain no longer had his microbots. Rena, Hiro, Gogo and Fred approached him warily. His head was bent so they still couldn't see his face. They stood in a small clump a couple of feet away from him. Hiro stepped forward and cleared his throat. The villain didn't lift his head but he stopped struggling.

'It's over Krei.' Hiro said, his voice ringing out clearly in the huge room. He was trembling slightly, and Rena came forwards and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and she gave him a weak smile.

For the longest moment, Yokai didn't move. For a second Rena thought he was sleeping, or dead. The only sounds were Honey Lemon and Wasabi coming to join them, their footsteps echoing loudly. Rena felt a surge of pride for Tadashi and his expert programming that meant Baymax could nurse them back to health so fast.

'Krei.' Hiro said again, and the villain lifted his head.

Rena's grip on Hiro's shoulder tightened. She felt like there was a weight pressing down on her chest, and she could barely breathe. Someone cried out behind her and Hiro stumbled backwards. He didn't fall, but she felt that he wouldn't have noticed even if he had. His eyes were locked on the figure in front of him, his eyes so wide they were practically popping out of skull.

Because Krei wasn't stood in front of them. It was Professor Callaghan.

'But you're dead.' Rena gasped. She didn't believe what she was seeing.

'No.' Callaghan muttered, his voice raspy and hoarse.

'But the fire.' Rena insisted. She shook her head numbly. 'You died!'

'No I didn't!' Callaghan sneered, 'I had HIS microbots!'

'But... Tadashi!' Hiro choked tearily. 'He... he went in there to save you!'

'That was his mistake!'

'YOU LET HIM DIE!' Hiro roared. His face was streaked with tears and his eyes were full of murder. Rena had to hold him back as he lunged at Callaghan.

'Stop! Hiro!' Rena yelped, struggling to keep him back. He was showing surprising amounts of strength as he struggled against her, but she had her arms wrapped around his tiny frame.

'NO! HE LET TADASHI DIE!' Hiro screeched, punching and kicking at her. 'LET ME GO!'

'A little help?!' Rena cried over her shoulder desperately to her friends. Gogo sprang forwards and grabbed one of his arms. They held him back as he shrieked insults at Callaghan and cursed and sobbed.

'I didn't let him die!' Callaghan shouted, but no one was listening to him. Rena was finding it difficult to keep her focus both on the microbots and keeping Hiro back. She knelt in front of him and cupped his face with her hand. He stopped resisting as she looked at him.

'Hey.' She whispered gently, speaking quietly so no one else could hear her. 'I know. I know. He's a piece of shit. I know it hurts, okay? But you need to stop this - you can't just run forward and strangle those who anger you. Just calm down, alright? Calm.'

He stared at her and for a second she thought he was just going to ignore her. But then he stopped struggling and sank to his knees. Gogo let go of him and breathed out, staring at Callaghan as she did so. Rena let Hiro stay there for a second and collect his thoughts.

'I didn't let him die!' Callaghan said again, and Rena turned and glared at him.

'Shut the fuck up. I do not want to hear another word out of you, you piece of shit.'

'No, listen-'

She turned away from him and made the bots squeeze him a little harder. He struggled for a second before she loosened them up. Callaghan gasped pathetically from behind her, but he didn't dare say another word. Rena pulled her head off of her head and threw it across the floor away from her. She shook her hair out so it fell over her face and lent against the wall. No one else paid any attention to her, they were all too busy revelling over the news of Callaghan being the masked guy that had tried to kill them. She was grateful, because she found that there were tears burning in her eyes. She slid down the wall and buried her head in her hands. The truth was, she did want to kill Callaghan. A small part of her knew that if he friends weren't there, then she probably would have given in and done it. And that absolutely terrified her. But he killed Tadashi! Her sweet, caring, loving older brother. He'd set the fire and watched as he burnt to a crisp. And she was furious about it.

Standing up, she wiped the tears from her eyes and started striding towards Callaghan. She didn't know what he was going to do to him when she got to him, she only knew that he wasn't going to kill him. She shoved roughly past Baymax, who grabbed her arm and looked at her right in the eyes. His stare was intense and made her uncomfortable. Baymax lifted a vinyl finger and pointed towards a door that she hadn't previously noticed. And he said a word. A single word that made her world tip on its head.

'Tadashi.'

For a second, she had no idea what he meant. And then she got it.

She staggered backwards and tripped. The mask flew off her face and she heard an almighty crash and a yell as the microbots fell and Callaghan was freed. But she didn't care. She barely noticed.

Callaghan. He shouted that he didn't let Tadashi die. She thought that had meant that he didn't directly kill him. But Tadashi was his favourite student, there is no way he would have sat back and watched him die. He never could have rebuilt that portal entirely on his own. And that figure at SFIT... she thought she was just making it up that it was him but... what if it really was?

She jumped to her feet as though the floor was made from red hot coals. Callaghan reached forwards and snatched the mask but she simply pushed past him. Her heart was hammering so fast it could have jumped out her chest. She only had one destination - the door that Baymax had pointed to. Chaos ensued and her friends were shouting to help them as Callaghan escaped but she was running towards that door. Nothing could stop her. Not even Hiro , who had run up to her and was now clinging to her arm. She simply pushed him to the ground and continued.

Callaghan disappeared just as she approached the door. She wrenched the handle up and down but the door was locked. Pumped full of adrenaline and feeling very very angry, she simply kicked the door down. She didn't even feel it.

The room was small. There was a small bed in the corner and a desk pushed up against the wall, the back of the chair was facing her. Sat in the chair was a lone figure, hunched over and writing in a notepad. The door clattered to the floor and he froze. He raised his head but did not look at her. He didn't need to. Rena would recognise him anywhere.

'Rena.' His voice sent a shiver up her spine. The same voice had dried her tears and made jokes and laughed with her and comforted her and stayed up until the ungodly hours of the night with her and celebrated with her and cried with her and-

She couldn't find the words. She had dreamed of this moment for weeks. She had stayed up all night sobbing, wishing for this moment to happen. She had a million things to say to him and yet her mouth couldn't move.

Tadashi Hamada was sat in front of her.

And she yet was so

fucking

angry.


	8. Chapter 8

Before Rena knew what she was doing, she was running towards him. Tadashi grinned at her, holding his arms out. He clearly thought that she was running to hug him, but he couldn't be more wrong. She seized a fistful of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.

'Who are you?' She hissed, her face inches away from his.

'Rena.. wha-?'

'DO I LOOK LIKE I'M FUCKING AROUND?' She roared, 'WHO ARE YOU?'

Tadashi flinched 'T..Tadashi! Your brother!'

'When's your birthday?'

'I don't.. I don't-' Rena slammed his head against the wall hard and he cried out. 'May 28!'

'When's Hiro's birthday?'

He knew better than to question her again. 'April 7!'

Rena let go of his shirt and he fell to the floor. 'So it really is you. Not some kind of... robot. Or.. or a simulation.'

'No of course not!'

Rena sucked in a breath. 'Oh. Brilliant.'

For a second, she didn't move. Then, someone entered the room behind her.

Hiro stood there, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. He let out a choking sob and Rena watched in horror as he began crying in front of her. She wanted to comfort him, but she couldn't. He looked so broken and defeated that her heart broke. Again. Then, she lunged towards Tadashi.

'WHAT THE FUCK?!' She belted, feeling nothing but pure anger. Tadashi stared at her and then she was hitting him. She was punching him and kicking him and screaming and screaming and screaming. 'YOU PRETEND TO BE DEAD FOR 3 MONTHS?! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US?' She was sobbing as she yelled at him, still attacking him. There was a roaring in her ears and Tadashi was crouched with his arms over his head. He looked so weak and helpless but she didn't care. She just. Kept. Hurting. Him. Suddenly, arms were pulling her away from him and pulling her back. She was nothing short of feral, trying to push against Gogo, Fred and Wasabi as they tried to hold her back. She was aware of Honey Lemon trying to calm her down but she was too busy crying and screaming to be able to pay any attention to her. Hiro was stood to the side, frozen in horror at the scene that was unfolding before him. Rena managed to pull away from her friends and she lunged for Tadashi again. But before she even managed to get anywhere near him she felt a prick in her neck and Baymax was looming above her. He'd plunged a needle into her neck and she scrabbled desperately at the needle inside her. Her knees buckled and she slurred something incomprehensible. The last thing she remembered was collapsing to the floor, still reaching towards Tadashi. But then her eyes slid shut and everything fell silent.

She awoke many hours later on the softest bed she had ever laid on. As soon as her eyes fluttered open, she sat bolt upright and instantly regretted it. Her head spun painfully and her stomach twisted. She leaned over the side of the bed and vomited into a well placed bowl. She sat back and wiped her mouth, wondering where the hell she was. Then, before she could even move again the door opened and Honey Lemon and Fred walked in.

'Yo.' Fred said, slinging himself down casually onto her bed. 'Wassup.'

'You okay?' Honey Lemon asked nervously, eyeing the bowl of vomit at her feet.

'Yeah.' She said, rubbing her eyes with her palms. Jesus, her head ached so badly. 'What the fuck did Baymax inject me with?'

Fred shrugged. 'Just something to make you calm down.'

It took her a second to register what he said. She just sat there with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion before it all came flooding back to her. Tadashi. Alive. She suddenly forgot all about her aching head and she jumped straight out of bed. 'Where the FUCK is he?' She snapped angrily, shoving past Honey Lemon and throwing herself at door. 'I'm gonna FUCKING STRANGLE HIM.'

Honey Lemon put her hand on her arm and pulled her back in the room. Considering that she was so gentle, she was actually surprisingly strong. 'Rena. Not this again. Please.'

Rena hesitated, still tempted to burst through the door and hunt down Tadashi. But something in the tone of Honey Lemon's voice made her stop. She sighed and collapsed back onto the bed. 'I hate him.' She whispered through her tears.

'No. You don't' Honey Lemon said gently, sitting down next to her and taking Rena's hand in hers. 'You're just shocked. Your brain needs time to process this information.'

Rena nodded. 'How are you not angry?'

'I was.' Fred piped up, and she looked at him in surprise. 'I was super angry at him. But then I remembered why I missed him so much, and suddenly I wasn't angry anymore.'

Rena blinked. 'Really?'

'Yeah! I mean, I wasn't as angry as you. You know, I didn't try to beat him up. But yeah.'

'We were all angry.' Honey Lemon said, squeezing her hand. 'Of course we would be. You should've seen Gogo shouting at him. She went crazy.'

'What, so everyone has just forgiven him? Where is he? Where am I? What happened to Callaghan? Where's Hiro?' Rena asked, speaking so fast that it all came out in a mad tangle of words.

'Slow down!' Fred laughed, 'it's okay. You're at my house, and so is everyone else. You weren't out for that long, it's only early Sunday morning. I'm pretty sure we're the only people up.'

Rena nodded, slowly processing this information. So Aunt Cass didn't know yet.

'I need to get out of here. I can't see him - or Hiro - without clearing my head. I- where's my bag?'

'Downstairs.' Fred replied, 'all your stuff is in the third spare room on on the first floor.'

'The THIRD spare room? Jesus Fred!'

'Are you sure you're alright to go out?' Honey Lemon questioned anxiously. 'It's really, really early. You don't need to go out just yet, I'm sure everyone will be out for hours.'

'Yeah. I'm sure. Thank you, though.' She didn't ask why they were the only people awake, instead she simply stood and exited the room. They followed her down the carpeted hallway and down the stairs. Honey Lemon and Fred were chatting about a film or something, Rena wasn't playing particularly close attention. Fred showed her where her bag and moped helmet was and she thanked him profusely before waving goodbye to the two of them and heading out.

On the way out, she noticed a simple wooden shed in the garden. An idea formed in her head and she jogged over to it. Weirdly enough, it was unlocked. She supposed that when you were as rich as Fred then it didn't really matter if someone stole the crap that you never used stored away in your shed. She rooted around for a minute before she found exactly what she was looking for. A simple, cheap hammer. She opened her bag and wrapped it up in a spare hoodie so it wouldn't crush anything she had previously stuffed in there. She then ran to the moped and jetted off down the street without looking back.

Not even half an hour later, Rena arrived at the park. She locked her helmet away and tucked her keys carefully into the front pocket of her bag. It was only just past 6 am and she had never been to the park that early before. The park was extremely pretty in the early morning light, and she enjoyed the peacefulness of almost nobody else there. She made her way up the hill to the cherry tree and Tadashi's bench. When she got there, she just stared at it for a moment. Over the past few months, she had been here so often. She'd given so many speeches. And for what? Tadashi was back now and basically all she had done was tried to kill him. Sighing, she stood back and unzipped her bag. She unwrapped the hammer from the jumper, weighing it carefully in her hand.

'I'm sorry bench.' She whispered. She lifted the hammer over her head and brought it down on the bench with a big crunch. A crack ran down the centre of the wood and it splintered. She did it again. And again. And again. The wood cracked and fell away as she smashed it, taking out all her anger on this bench that she had spent so many hours at. She kept hitting and smashing it and breaking it until it was just a huge pile of splinters. When she was satisfied that it had been thoroughly destroyed, she collapsed on top of the pile. Wood poked into her legs but she didn't care; there were plenty of splinters buried in her hands anyway. She pulled them out one at a time, wincing as small beads of blood appeared on her palms. Then, she lowered her head down into her arms and sobbed. Her shoulders shook and she had to bite down on her fist to prevent herself from screaming. Her brain was still struggling to process the events of the past day. She was so, so angry. At Tadashi, at her friends, at the world. She'd been through so much, and it had all been for nothing. She didn't know what to feel! So many emotions were balled up inside her. Primarily, rage and sadness. But also an intense feeling of relief and dizzying happiness. Tadashi was alive! So why couldn't she just be happy? Why did she have to be so angry?  
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Rena pulled up on the moped outside Fred's house a little while later. She wanted to stay a lot longer but she had decided it would probably be a smart move to leave before she got arrested for criminal damage. In the remains of Tadashi's bench, she had picked up the small piece of golden metal that bore his name, the Great Gatsby quote and dates of his "death" and birthday. It was a little bent and tarnished, but you could still clearly tell what it was and what it said. She didn't know what to do with it, so she'd tucked it inside her pocket where it sat alongside the post-it she had stolen from his room about a week ago. Was that really a week ago? She felt like years had passed between then and her finding out Tadashi was alive. She approached the huge door and slipped it silently, pulling her shoes off and shoving them to the side of the hallway. She crept up the stairs and went back to the room that she had woken up in. Thankfully, the bowl of vomit had been removed. Rena sank down into the pillows and ran her hands through her hair. She felt like she had aged 10 years since the previous day. She debated about texting Hiro, but decided against it. If he wanted to talk, he would come find her. In that moment, all she had the energy to do was pull the covers around her and fall asleep. So that's what she did.  
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'Rena! RENA!'

'Wha-? Gerroff!' She murmured sleepily. She did not appreciate being shaken awake. Hiro's face loomed inches away from hers and she jumped, very close to headbutting him.

'Get up! It's like, 12pm.'

'Hmmm, yeah. I don't care.'

'Right. Well, we need to talk.'

Rena sat up feeling extremely groggy. She rubbed her eyes and stared at him blearily. 'Since when did you get so sensible?'

'Since you literally tried to kill our brother.'

'Hey! I wasn't gonna kill him...'

'Shut up. It was stupid. You're such a hypocrite.'

'There are worse things to be. Do I have to talk to Tadashi?'

'Yes. He's been in some real deep shit and he is legitimately in danger. We need to help him.'

Rena sighed. 'So you forgive him. Just like that, huh?'

Hiro shrugged. 'I don't know. But we can put all that aside until we catch this asshole right? Rena, whatever he's done to us, he's still our brother. And we need to protect him.'

'What the hell are you talking about? Surely he's not in that much danger? Wait, don't tell me. I need to hear it from him.'

'As long as you promise you won't loose your shit with him again.'

'Pinky promise.'

Hiro nodded and stood. 'I'll go get him. Also, just a pre-warning, you beat him up pretty bad. I don't know if he's angry at you but he will probably start crying.'

Rena groaned. 'Fucking brilliant.'

'Well, you shouldn't have tried to beat him up in the first place.'

'Touche.'

He left and her eyes drifted over to the mirror. She combed her hair with her fingers and picked out the last couple splinters that were still embedded in her hair and jumper. She had to admit, she did feel extremely guilty about loosing her shit with him like that. Also, she knew this feeling would only be further reinforced if he did come up with some kind of tragic story. But at the same time, she felt like nothing he could say would ever convince her to forgive him fully. At least not yet anyway. Her head whipped around when she heard the door creak open and Tadashi limped into the room behind Hiro.

'Hey.' He said hoarsely, not looking at her. Rena jumped up when he sat on the bed and he flinched as though he was scared she was going to hit him again. She sucked in a breath as she looked at him. He had a black eye and his lip was bust, and when he spoke she noticed that he had a tooth or two missing. He winced as he sat down, holding his ribs.

'Shit.' She whispered, and for a second she forgot all about her anger. He looked so un-Tadashi-like that for a second she almost dissolved into tears. 'I didn't realise I hurt you so bad.'

'I deserved it anyway.'

'Kinda. Where the fuck have you been?'

'On the island.'

'This whole time?'

'...No. Not the whole time. But yeah, most of the time that's where I've been. The only way to get out of the fire was to escape with Callaghan. I was hurt pretty bad and he took me to the island. I was just going to stay until my injuries healed but there was a change of plan.'

'What?'

'The portal. I helped him build it. I owed him one, not just for him saving my life. I helped him to recreate the microbots as well. He said he needed his daughter back and I couldn't refuse... he was so sad about it. He went to the city a few weeks ago to store the bots where he could use them in a warehouse, we decided it was best because they were making a lot of noise and there was a lot of storage there anyway. I was all set to go home the next day. But... something happened. It was like he snapped, he came back to the island and told me he couldn't let me go home. We fought, but he was a lot stronger than I was. I stayed there, and I tried to figure out what to do. I managed to steal one of his stupid cloaks and I clung to his microbots as he crossed the water. It was terrifying, but I made it. I was so happy, I went straight to SFIT to go find you but he saw me. He saw me and brought me back.'

'It was you. Outside the window, in chemistry.' Rena breathed, sinking down onto the bed in shock. She was right, she knew it was him.

'Yeah. I tried to get inside but security threw me out. We got back to the island and Callaghan said that he was going to kill you. All of you. I begged him not to and he said that if I stayed and didn't fight him he would spare you. I had no choice.'

'One phone call Tadashi.' Rena said, her voice low and full of fury. 'One text. One note. A single word. It's all I would have needed. All I would have needed to know that you were alive.'

'I couldn't do anything! Trust me I tried! I-'

'Then you didn't try hard enough.' She paused and took a deep breathe. 'I had to deliver your eulogy. I had to stand there and give a speech on you, your life, your achievements. Everything you'd ever done for us. Because I thought you were dead. Do you have any idea what that felt like? Do you have any idea what your death did to us? We sat outside that burning building for hours Tadashi. Fucking hours. And-' She broke off and buried her head in her hands, not wanting Tadashi to see her cry.

'Please.' Tadashi whispered to her, not daring to touch her. 'I was trying to save you.'

Rena felt in her pocket and brought out the little golden plaque she had taken from the bench. She threw it at him, and he studied it for a second before letting out a soft gasp of understanding.

'For the record.' She breathed, looking at him through a blurry curtain of tears. 'I don't care how you did it. I don't care how you survived, what you did to get here or even why you decided to stay away from us for so long. I want to know why you decided to run into the fire in the first place.'

Tadashi faltered. 'What do you mean? I went in there to save Callaghan?'

'No you misunderstood.' Rena said, the shakiness of her voice disappearing. She wasn't angry, or sad. She felt numb and disappointed. The missing piece she had been looking for for so long was back and it didn't fix her. And she felt so hopelessly lost. 'I didn't mean "why did you run into the fire?" I meant "why the hell would you leave us there?" You know, why the hell you decided it was alright to leave a kid alone to watch his brother run into the fire without a single regard of what would happen to the people he left behind?'

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hiro droop slightly.

'Tadashi.' She said this softly enough so that hopefully Hiro wouldn't hear her, 'I don't care about me. I don't care why you left me there. I want to know why you decided to run away from him instead of staying with him, like you should've done. He's a kid. He's a tiny kid who had just had one of the best days of his life. He'd gotten accepted into the school of his dreams that YOU convinced him to go to in the first place. That same school that he can't bear to go near because he thought you burnt to a crisp inside of it. I was so, so angry at you for leaving him Tadashi. I still am. It destroyed him, it utterly destroyed him. How could you do that to him? How could you blow our lives into pieces like that and expect to waltz right back in like nothing ever happened?'

Tadashi took her hand and she noticed how burnt and calloused it was. 'I wasn't thinking. If I'd have known what was going to happen then I wouldn't have gone in.'

Rena slid her hand away. 'That's not the point. You shouldn't have gone in anyway. Also, if you really cared about us then you would've tried harder to contact us. I don't care what your excuses are. What you did was shitty!'

She stood up and brushed herself off. She gave Hiro's shoulder a squeeze and promptly exited the bedroom without saying another word.

'He's in danger.'

'I don't care.'

Hiro was stood in front of her, his arms crossed. After Rena had stormed out, she had wandered the hallways of the huge house until she had found the library. She had sank into one of the cushy armchairs and cried at the unfairness of it all. She sounded like she had a bad head cold.

'That's a lie. Callaghan wants him dead.'

'Callaghan wants us all dead. He's not special.'

'Wow. Seriously? Since when are you so immature?'

'Immature? IMMATURE?' Rena salt bolt upright in her chair and stared at him. 'He pretended to be dead for 3 months. How are you not mad at him?'

'He's our brother! I am mad at him but I... I love him. And I missed him! And yeah, I'm annoyed about him doing that to us but more than anything I'm glad he's back. Can't you just be happy that he's not dead?'

'Have you not forgotten what he did to us? To you?'

'We're going to catch Callaghan. Are you coming or not?'

She hesitated. 'What if it's a trap though? I mean, what if he's still with Callaghan and he's just trying to stop us?'

'How could you say that?'

'You heard it yourself! He helped him build that awful portal! Who knows what evil shit they're planning to do with it? There's no way they're just going to use it just to get Abigail.'

'Rena, have you forgotten who he is? Tadashi would NEVER do that to us.'

'Yeah? And I thought that he would never go hide on an island and pretend to be dead and yet that still happened!'

'Wow. Wooooooow. Fine. Stay here and wallow in your own sadness then. I don't care anymore.'

'Hiro-'

'NO! Stop. Either get over yourself and come with us or sit here and show me that you're a coward. I don't care what Tadashi did to us, but you can't sit back and let him get killed. At least I'm not doing that anyway.'

With that, he turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him, leaving Rena alone in the big empty library.


	9. Chapter 9

Rena hated what Hiro had just said. Partly because it stung a little and partly because she knew he was right. It stunned her that he had actually been so reasonable and mature for once, and she felt slightly ashamed about how she'd been acting. What Tadashi did was really shitty, but deep down she still loved him more than anything. She was simply overjoyed that he wasn't dead and she didn't know why she had so much difficulty showing this. One thing was for certain - it was definitely a lot easier keeping up the walls she had built around herself and being angry as opposed to letting him (or anyone else) break them down. Long ago, when they were all in high school, she had sat and watched Hiro cry about the people who were making his life hell. Then, a little while later, she had sat and watched Tadashi cry about the bullies making Hiro's life hell. Since then, she had sworn to be the strong one. Tadashi could comfort someone but Rena would be the one to come and beat the ass of the person that had made them upset. As a result, she'd always bottle up her emotions and toss them aside. Nope, don't like that, I'll deal with it later. She had only let herself feel angry because that was the thing that protected her brothers. When Tadashi died, all of these emotions had come spilling out of her all at once. And she'd finally locked them back away when he decided to come and spill them out again. The walls she had built herself all those years ago were collapsing before her eyes and the only thing she could do, the only thing that she'd ever been able to do, was be angry about it. Pin the blame on someone else and move on. She wasn't angry at Tadashi, she was angry at herself. Angry at herself for being so sad and confused and lonely and numb. And now, she was angry about what she had said and the fact that she couldn't seem to forgive her big brother. And in that moment in which she was sitting there, debating about what to do, all she wanted to do was to sink into Tadashi's arms and cry. Cry about what his death had done to her and cry about what she'd done to him and cry about anything and everything. She just wanted Tadashi to look her in the eyes and tell her that everything was going to be okay. Then they could go and play some Mario Kart like they used to.

'Fuck.' She muttered, quickly getting to her feet. In two strides she had crossed the room and wrenched the door open. Standing in the hallway, she realised that she had no idea where everyone else was. Or even where she was. Sure, she had found the library herself but that didn't mean that she had the slightest clue about whereabouts in the huge mansion she was. She looked up and down the hallway, cursing her awful memory as she tried to remember which way she had come from. It was right, surely it was. Yes, she had definitely come from the right hand side. Although... that painting in the left corridor was very familiar. Frustrated, she turned to the left and ran down the hall. Her footsteps echoed loudly in the empty corridor.

'Hiro!' She called in the hopes that he would hear her and turn back. But no, of course she wouldn't be so lucky.

Before long, she skidded to a halt at the foot of a very elegant staircase. She placed a hand on the banister and was about to ascend it when she realised that she didn't even know what floor she was on. She needed to be on the ground floor, so ascending the staircase probably wouldn't help. She turned and walked over to a random door and pulled it open. Not paying any attention to the room she was now in, she strode right over to the window. She fumbled with the latch for a second before pulling it up over her head. The wind hit her in the face and for a second she paused and enjoyed the cool air - especially seeing as she was still sweaty and panting from all the running she had just been doing. She looked out and deduced that she'd gone the wrong way - she was on at least the second floor. She sighed in frustration and was about to slide the window shut again when something caught her eye. A glint of red. She leaned out and watched as her friends took their positions on Baymax. She shouted down to them and waved her arms but they didn't hear her. She watched in horror as Baymax took off to the sky, leaving her alone in a big empty house. Well, alone with a butler and her big brother. She turned away from the window and kicked a cardboard box in frustration. It skidded across the floor and tipped sideways, a random assortment of junk spilling out across the floor. Rena lifted her head and surveyed the room. It seemed to be some kind of large storage cupboard. Piles of cardboard boxes were stacked up to the ceiling, filled with who knows what. She bent down and started scooping the contents of the box she had kicked over back inside it. There was a tangle of necklaces, an old iphone, fancy motercycle helmet, a torch and some kind of knife. She picked it up quizzically, admiring the blade. She wasn't an expert on weapons, but she knew enough to say confidently that this was a good knife. The blade was about as long as her hand with an elegant black handle. She ran her fingers over the smooth surface before she noticed a tiny little button. She pressed it experimentally and the blade shot into the handle. Without thinking about it, she slipped it onto her pocket. It's not like anyone would notice - it was in the bottom of an old cardboard box in some random storage room. She highly doubted that anyone would miss it, so what was the harm in taking it? Tadashi's post-it brushed against her fingers as she tucked into her pocket and her fingers tightened around the tiny slip of paper. She needed to find him, and fast. She stood up quickly and slammed the door shut behind her, racing back down the hallway. Unfortunately, she forgot to shut the window behind her, and this was very lucky for a certain hooded figure who just so happened to be prowling the grounds, desperately searching for a way into the building.

Rena ran back down the hallway until she ended up back at the library, but she didn't stop to check out the view. She just kept running. More than once, she came to a stop to peer down the hallway behind her; she felt as though someone was watching her. The shadows seemed to move behind her and she kept her hand grasped firmly on the knife inside her pocket, becoming increasingly more relieved that she had thought to pick it up. She continued down the twisty mess of corridors until she smacked straight into someone.

'Heathcliffe!' She gasped, holding her side. 'How... how big is this house?'

'Miss Hamada! Why, this house is rather large, I must admit. But what in heavens name are you doing here? Why are you not with Master Frederick?'

'I couldn't find them! Listen, is Tadashi still here? I need to see him, now.'

'Why yes Miss Hamada, Master Hamada is still here.'

'Good. Where is he?'

'In the basement Miss Hamada.'

'Cool. Thanks Heathcliffe.' She started to walk away when she stopped and turned back to face the butler. 'Uhhh, where exactly is the basement?'

'Keep on going down this hallway, and then then open the third door on the left hand side. That shall bring you to one of our four master bedrooms. From there, you can enter the luxury en-suite bathroom and the door leading out from there shall bring you to another hallway. Continue going, then turn left, left again, then a right. You will come to the master staircase in the entrance hall of the house. From there, go to the West Wing and take a left. The second door on the right shall lead you to the basement.'

'...Right.' Rena said, shaking her head as she attempted to memorise this information. 'Thank you.'

'It is no issue at all Miss Hamada.'

She made it to the corridor outside the bathroom before she realised that she was lost. She paced up and down the hallway, trying to wrack her brains in order to remember what Heathcliffe had said to her next. She was muttering directions and names of random rooms under her breath when a voice spoke out from the darkness, startling her.

'Two lefts then a right. I expect more from one of my best students.'

'What the FUCK are you doing here?' Rena yelped, stumbling backwards. She smacked into a wall behind her and her fumbling hand reached down to the knife still in her pocket. She closed her fingers on the handle as she stared Callaghan down.

'Language!' He drawled smoothly. Callaghan stepped towards her and took the end of her chin in his hand. Rena couldn't move, a sickening feeling was rising inside her and she gulped. But she didn't want to seem scared, so she stared up at him as defiantly as she could manage. Callaghan chuckled at her fear. 'Relax. I'm just here for your treacherous brother. Now, I know you're sensible. Just back down and let me take him, and you won't get hurt.'

'But you'll hurt him.'

'Maybe. But that should be of no concern to you. Aren't you the one that hates him in the first place?' She didn't say anything and he laughed cruelly. 'Tadashi was easy to manipulate, you know. So pathetic. So desperate to protect people. Besides, he adored me so much that I could get him to do anything for me. It wasn't difficult. Now, do as you're told and back down so I can kill him.'

'He trusted you. I trusted you. And you're clearly not as clever as you think if you think I'm just gonna back down like that.'

'Just as useless as your pathetic brother then.'

'You're really not as scary without your precious bots you know. Or should I say, Hiro's microbots. Honestly, it's laughable that you couldn't even come up with your own shitty invention.'

Callaghan sneered, gripping her face even harder. Rena winced and he snarled at her discomfort. His hand moved down and grasped her neck. She scrabbled at his hand as he squeezed. Callaghan grinned as she spluttered and choked. 'You know what, maybe I will kill you. How does it feel to be the one being strangled?'

Rena's mind was going a million miles an hour. Her oxygen starved brain was desperately trying to think of a way to get her out of this. She knew she was going to die. She was going to suffocate right there and she hadn't even put up a fight. Callaghan was right - she truly was pathetic. In a last desperate attempt to do something to resist, she balled up a huge wad of spit in her mouth and spat into his face.

Little did she know, this defiant act would save her scrawny ass. Callaghan cried out in disgust and loosened his grip. Rena took her chance and brought her knee up, kicking him directly in the balls. Hard. Callaghan wheezed and went crashing to the ground. Rena fell back against the wall, coughing and retching as she gasped for air. She had seconds to do something that would give her a head start. She stepped forwards and stamped on his face and with a satisfying crack his nose broke and blood went spurting everywhere.

Then, she ran for her life.

It was quite possibly the most painful thing that she had ever done. Her body was still recovering from being strangled, and all of her muscles were on fire as she legged it down the hallway. She heaved as she ran down the stairs and onto the ground floor, no thought in her mind except the feverish desire to get as far away from Callaghan as possible and to warn Tadashi. It took her a minute to find the right door for the basement, and in her panic she crashed into it and fell down the stairs into the basement. For a second, she couldn't move. She just lay there, hands at her throat and wheezing and coughing and spluttering.

'Rena! What the-? Are you alright?'

Tadashi's concerned face was inches away from her own. She propped herself onto her elbows and seized a fistful of his shirt. 'Hide.' She breathed, but that was all she could manage before she erupted into a fit of coughs.

'Woah hang on, what happened?' He grabbed her elbow and helped her to her feet. She was a nasty shade of purple and her eyes were bulging out of her sockets. She knew she must have looked absolutely feral but she didn't care. She slapped him away and bent over double, wheezing and hugging her chest.

'Callaghan...dead...wants you... HIDE.' She gasped. The burning in her lungs was starting to lessen but it still hurt to talk.

Tadashi paled. 'You're not serious? Here? I thought everyone had just gone to get him?'

'For FUCKS SAKE! Does it look like I'm joking?' Rena said through gritted teeth. She straightened up and winced. 'I bet we have about 30 seconds before he bursts in here and kills you.'

Tadashi stepped back, shaking his head. 'Why are you helping me? I thought you hated me?'

She stared at him incredulously. 'First of all, I don't. I was actually looking for you because I wanted to talk to you. Then I found Callaghan. But that's not the point. Just... do as I say and hide, alright? You've already died once I DO NOT want to go through that again. You understand me?' The look on her face was so fierce that Tadashi didn't argue. He nodded and walked over to the corner, pulling out a couch that he could never realistically hide behind. Rena looked frantically around the room for somewhere that her big brother could hide, somewhere that would actually work. Her eyes rested on the bookshelf, specifically on a particularly old paperback. 'I swear to god.' She muttered under her breath, striding towards it. She grabbed the corner of the book and yanked it. Instead of the book coming off the shelf, it stayed fast. A low rumbling issued from the ground and she jumped back as the bookshelf moved. Rena shook her head in disbelief as a secret passageway was revealed.

''Dashi!' She called. He stopped trying to climb behind a couch and stared at the opening in shock. He scrambled over to the passage and extended his arm out for her to join him.

'No. You go, he wants you.' She chose to leave out the whole "maybe I will kill you" business, knowing full well that if she revealed Callaghan hated her just as much then he would never leave.

'What? Rena, no! I can't let you sacrifice yourself for me-'

'Oh stop trying to be so noble!' She snapped, 'just... go get help, okay? Call the others. I have a plan, I'll hold him off.'

'What plan? I swear don't go doing anything stupid-'

'Tadashi, time is crucial. I can buy you time and throw him off the scent.'

'No! I.. I won't let you! I'll-'

Rena clapped a hand over his mouth. Above them, she could hear Callaghan stomping around and cursing. He really wasn't a good burglar. 'No time! GO!' She yelped. He tried to grab her arm and pull her in after him but she slapped him away. Ignoring his protests, she shoved the book back into its spot and the shelf slid shut behind her. She had mere seconds to dive away so she didn't look suspicious before Callaghan found her. Rena held her breath as the door burst open and he towered in the doorway.

'WHERE IS HE?' He shouted, throwing aside a table as he passed. It hit the wall and smashed into splinters.

'Not here. Sorry old man, but I guess this will teach you to go faster next time.' Rena said, crossing her arms and straightening out in order to look more confident than she felt. She prayed that Tadashi had the sense to get as far down that passageway as he physically could.

'LIAR!' Callaghan roared. He swiped aside a chair and seized a fistful of her t-shirt.

'You can search the room all you want, but he's not here!'

He threw her on the floor in disgust and prowled the room, overturning tables and chairs as he tried to find Tadashi. Slowly, Rena edged towards the table that he had destroyed when he first came into the room. She still had her knife, but decided it was probably wisest to save it until she was facing an actual emergency. As evil as Callaghan was, she couldn't bring herself to kill him unless it was vital. Her fingers closed around a table leg that was basically intact. She weighed it up in her hand. Sure, it wasn't particularly dangerous. But it might knock him out if she hit him hard enough. Callaghan had pretty much stopped searching the room when she had pulled herself to her feet. She raised the plank of wood threateningly above her head. Callaghan just laughed and lent back against the wall with his arms folded, as nonchalant as though this happened everyday.

'So, Miss Hamada, care to tell me where your darling brother has disappeared off to?'

'I could... but I don't think I will.'

'You're making a grave mistake. I'll find him, you know I will. Then, I'll kill him.'

Rena sucked in a breath. She had her plan formulated in her mind. She wasn't happy about it, but it was the only way to ensure Tadashi's safety. She was sure he would understand - Hiro needed him. She couldn't put Hiro through the pain of loosing him again, she knew what she had to do.

'Why?'

Callaghan frowned. 'What do you mean, why?'

'I mean, why do you want to kill him?'

'Because he betrayed me, idiot girl!'

'I mean, from what he told me, it sounds like you kinda betrayed him. You know, the fact that you wouldn't let him leave.'

'You wouldn't understand.' Callaghan snarled.

'Oh yeah? Try me.'

'The portal wasn't finished! He needed to stay so we could finish it! My daughter is DEAD and I need it for revenge.'

'And what is revenge going to do? You really think your daughter wants you to go get revenge on Krei and harm people? You really think that she would approve of you murdering my brother? Surely you can understand the pain of loosing someone, how could you put another family through what you suffered? Or did that idea never get through your thick skull?'

She'd gone too far. She could tell that she had began to convince him, but as she watched his face twist into a snarl she realised that this dog at his intelligence had sparked his anger again. Her grip on the table leg tightened and her heart hammered in her chest. She knew he was probably going to kill her, but there was no way in hell that she was ever going to show him her fear.

'I think revenge is the perfect thing I need. First, I'll take Tadashi back to the island. He can finish the project, my special "helpers" will ensure this. Maybe I'll kill him in the end, if I'm feeling generous. Then, I'll destroy everything Krei has ever built. And if I'm feeling generous, I'll kill him too.'

'Take me instead.' Callaghan glared at her, clearly trying to work out if she was playing a trick on him. When he didn't answer, she continued, her heart rate increasing and her hands quickly becoming sweatier. 'What's more of a punishment to Tadashi? Taking him, or taking his little sister? You said it yourself - he'd do anything to protect us.'

She could practically see the cogs working away in Callaghan's mind. He was trying to figure out why she would sacrifice herself to save her brother. It was then that she realised he hadn't loved anyone in a long time - he had forgotten how it feels to love someone so deeply that you'd take a bullet for them. She felt kind of sad for him, in a way. She couldn't imagine ever being that alone in the world. No wonder he was so mental.

'And why are you suggesting this?'

'Because I don't want Tadashi to die.' And she also knew that Tadashi's death would probably kill Hiro too. She couldn't do that to her little brother - she couldn't bear to see him loose Tadashi again. It would destroy him. Hiro needed Tadashi much more than he needed Rena, that much was clear. If sacrificing herself was what it took to save both of their lives, then so be it. After all, she had sworn to her parents that she would look after them both. Tadashi had sworn the same thing but Rena knew she was the one that they had truly meant to look after her siblings. She was stronger, she was tougher. She could look a person in the eye and tell him to kill her. Maybe that made her weak. Maybe the idea that she was sacrificing herself because she couldn't bear to see what happened if she survived was weak. But it didn't matter. All that mattered in that moment was saving her family. 'Do we have a deal or not?' She asked, stepping towards him. 'My life for Tadashi's.' She extended her hand and offered it to him. It felt weird, more like a business deal than her openly giving her life away.

Callaghan hesitated, but he took her hand and shook it firmly. 'You really are a stupid, stupid girl. But if you insist, I'll take you instead.' His hand went to his pocket and Rena tensed, but he merely took out the mask. He slipped it onto his head and Rena could hear the rumbling of thousands of microbots speeding towards her. Then, before she could even react, Callaghan has seized her and put a cloth over her mouth.

'Terribly sorry about this, but we wouldn't want you drawing attention to us now, would we? Remember Hamada, you're mine now. There's no escape, not this time.'

Rena felt her body begin to slow down and her mind turn to sludge. Ether. She scrabbled at the cloth, but it was futile. She collapsed into Callaghan and her table leg went clattering to the floor. Callaghan hauled her limp form up over his shoulder and she groaned slightly as her head smacked into the wall. Then, her eyes slid shut and she fell into complete and utter darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

For the next few hours, Rena drifted in and out of consciousness. The first time she stirred, she awoke in the same room that she had found Tadashi in. She vaguely remembered Callaghan coming in and Rena punching him. The memories were hazy, as though she was looking at them through the viewpoint of someone who had lost their glasses. Images were hazy and sounds were difficult to understand. She existed in this weird state for who knows how long, her sleep only being interrupted when she woke up retching. Ether wasn't doing her any favours, and she sourly missed the anaesthetic that Baymax had injected her with. At least when he had injected her she hadn't spent her waking hours vomiting or slurring insults at a mysterious figure that she couldn't quite work out the identity of.

Finally, she came to properly. Her eyes fluttered open and her head span as she lifted it. She tried to move her arms but swiftly realised that she could not. For a second, she was terrified that the ether had somehow managed to paralyse her. But when she looked down she saw that she had been tied to a hard wooden chair. She twisted around in an attempt to loosen her bonds but the ropes were tied so tightly around her that they cut into her whenever she moved. She stopped struggling and sat back in disbelief. Sure, she knew that Callaghan wanted to kill her, but this? Her breathing quickened as she thought of all the horrible things he was capable of. Was he gonna torture her? Somehow, she knew that if she survived this she wouldn't be escaping unscathed. The only thing that was stopping her from loosing it completely was the complete and utter faith in her friends to rescue her. She knew they were coming - they had to be. Also, her stubborn side refused to show Callaghan that she was scared.

Suddenly, the door banged open and Rena winced as Callaghan entered the room, flanked by two beefy thugs. They both looked like they were carbon copies of one another. They were exactly the same height and stocky build. Rena briefly wondered if they were twins before she realised that they were both brandishing baseball bats and two particularly vicious looking knives. Clearly, there was a more pressing matter at hand than the family tree of two weirdos.

However, this didn't stop her from being snarky. 'Bodyguards?' She sneered at Callaghan as they approached her, flexing their biceps at her threateningly. 'Really? Big scary Callaghan needs two bodyguards to defend him from a scary teenage girl?'

The bodyguards both advanced on her, snarling viciously and waving their various weapons at her. Callaghan lifted a hand and they retreated, Rena breathing out a sigh of relief. A second later and she would have been pummelled. Callaghan probably just wanted to scare her. 'Less of the cheek Miss Hamada.' He purred creepily. He seemed calm and collected compared to the lunatic that was ripping Fred's basement apart. Rena had a nasty feeling about the way he was smiling at her. 'You ought to show respect to your elders.'

Rena was tempted to spit at him again. In fact, she was about to when the tiny fraction of common sense still left in her brain told her not to. Besides, those baseball bats looked painful. 'Why have you tied me up? I thought you wanted help with your stupid project.'

'Well, that was the original plan Miss Hamada. However, you proved to be uncooperative and perhaps even violent. So, for our safety, I decided it was best to tie you up. Wouldn't want you to hurt anyone now, would we?'

She stared at him. 'That doesn't even make the slightest bit of sense.'

His eyes flashed dangerously. 'Oh it does Miss Hamada. It does when you understand the rest of the plan.'

'Oh yeah? Enlighten me then.'

'I plan on killing you eventually, of course I do. But whilst you were... out of action.. I came up with an even better plan. I came to the realisation that your beloved friends would come to your rescue. Then, I hired my two assistants here.' When he said this, the guy nearest to Rena gave a grunt of... recognition? Gratitude? Greeting? 'I decided that with their help, I could easily overpower you. Then, I would kill you all. One by one, slowly and painfully. Starting with your darling brother Hiro, just for the enjoyment of Tadashi Hamada.'

'You're sick. You're sick and twisted.' Rena spat at him. This time, she really did get hurt. The guy stood to her left swung at her face, his fist making a connection with her mouth. Rena yelped as she could feel her mouth fill with blood. Slowly, she lifted her head and a tooth fell out of her mouth and made a soft sound as it clattered to the floor. She spat the blood out and glared at Callaghan with as much anger as she could muster. 'I'm sure Abigail would love this. Murdering and torturing kids? Wow, what a legacy. She must be so PROUD to have someone so loving for a Father. Rot in hell, you stinking pile of shit.'

Callaghan simply smiled. 'Until later, Miss Hamada. Oh, I really am going to enjoy killing you.'

He swept out of the room, leaving Rena alone with the two thugs. Upon closer inspection, she could see that they weren't that similar after all. Sure, they were both wearing the same chunky black clothes, and their eyes had the same murderous glint in them, but they were more like brothers. Decidedly not twins. The guy stood to her left was ever so slightly taller, and he walked with a limp. When he smiled down at her, she could see a golden tooth glinting in the weak light of the tiny room. The second guy had a long scar running down the side of his face. It was clearly quite old, she could only see it properly when he leaned down and got right into her face. He grinned at her and she scrunched her nose up at the foul smell of his breath. It smelt like a mix between rotten eggs and the strong smell of the bins outside the cafe. It was definitely the worst thing she had ever smelt.

'Ugh, can you not?' She groaned, 'your breath STINKS.' She didn't know where this burst of confidence came from, but she was rewarded with a hit to the face that would definitely leave her with a black eye.

'You think you're so smart, eh kid?' He grunted, shoving his face so close to hers that their noses were practically touching.

'Uh, yeah. I do actually.' She said back, staring at him right in his dead, joyless eyes. He hit her again and she could feel her nose break. Blood spurted out like a fountain and Rena felt queasy. Her head was spinning and she was sure that she was going to pass out soon.

'The smart ones are the worst ones.' The other guy added, staring at her with pure hatred.

'Why? You jealous?' She coughed, 'not a brain cell between you both.'

Golden tooth guy seized a handful of her hair and yanked her head back. She could feel the blood from her nose run down her throat and she grimaced. Her neck ached as he held her there, and she could hear the door opening and swinging shut behind the man with the scar as he left the room. A few minutes later he returned, murmuring something to Gold Tooth. Scar face loomed above her, and for a terrifying second she thought he was going to stab her. He raised his arm back and suddenly Rena's world was engulfed in darkness. But no, she hadn't passed out. He had pressed a wet piece of cloth to her face. She struggled against it, the lack of oxygen making her head spin. She screamed as he pressed in harder and she could hear their jeering laughter from a mile off. It infuriated her, reminding her painfully of the boys that had pushed Hiro's head down the toilet and flushed it all those years ago. She thrashed about wildly, but this only seemed to make them happier. Then, when she was sure she was going to suffocate, (or at least pass out again) the cloth was lifted and she could breath again. She took in a great mouthful of air, coughing and spluttering as she inhaled mouthfuls of both air and blood that was still flowing thickly from her broken nose. She raised her head to look at the thugs laughing at her pain, and she managed to muster enough strength to spit out a final word to them.

'Cowards.'

This time, the blow that she received truly did knock her out.  
\---------------------------  
'Come on come on come on!'

'Tadashi be QUIET! I'm working.'

Tadashi Hamada paced up and down the garage. He hadn't been there for a few months, but it was exactly the same as he'd remembered it. This was good, it brought comfort that somewhat soothed the raging source of anxiety burning away in his chest.

12 hours ago, his sister had been kidnapped. It had been 12 hours, and yet they hadn't done anything to help her. It was 1am, his friends were in the corner of the room. Wasabi was snoozing, his head tilted back against the sofa. Fred was flicking through an old comic and Honey Lemon and Gogo were messing with their gear. Gogo was sharpening the edges of her disks and Honey Lemon was tipping chemicals into her purse. Apart from Tadashi's feverish mutterings, the only sounds in the room were the sounds of screwdrivers and the gentle humming of Baymax has he charged in the corner. It should have been peaceful, yet the atmosphere was tense and Tadashi felt as though a red hot fist of guilt was pressing down on his chest. The only reason that he was stood there alive was because Rena had sacrificed herself for him. He had heard their entire conversation through the bookshelf and it took every ounce of strength in him not to burst through the room and demand that Callaghan leave her alone. But Tadashi was smart, he knew that if he did that Callaghan would probably take both of them, and then Rena would hate him even more. As much as he hated it, he knew that the only way to ensure that at least one of them lived was to stay put. However, that didn't stop the nagging voice in the back if his mind telling him that he was selfish and that he made the wrong choice. He kept telling himself that Rena was strong, that she would be able to put up a fight but it was no use. Nothing could lessen his mounting anxiety, especially the fact that every second they wasted was a second that Callaghan could be spending murdering his little sister. Rena was right, this was definitely a hell of a lot more torturous for him. He didn't think he could handle it if she died, and he finally began to fully understand why she was so angry at him.

It was safe to say that he had never hated himself more in his entire life.

Hiro had called him when he was still hiding behind the bookshelf, collapsed against the wall. He could barely find the strength within himself to move, let alone talk. But he answered the phone anyway, and Hiro told him how they had gone to the island and there was no one there. The place was completely deserted. He told him how their gear had gotten pretty messed up, something about forces and electricy. For once, Tadashi hadn't been paying enough attention to care. But now, they were stuck in the garage whilst they mended their gear at the dead of night. There was no way they could face Callaghan without it. Tadashi had wanted to go as soon as they got back, but Hiro had forced him to wait whilst they came up with a plan. Besides, Aunt Cass was still at home. Tadashi had decided that he couldn't bear to face her unless he knew that Rena was alive first. He knew it was selfish to keep the knowledge that he was alive from her, but he was too preoccupied with worrying about other things to think about it too much. That was all he was good for - worrying.

So worry was what he did. Whilst everyone else sat and actually fixed their gear and made it so that they actually stood a chance against the villain, he just sat around and did absolutely nothing but worry. Well, someone had to do it. He had refused Hiro's offer of superhero gear, not wanting to waste anymore time than they already had done. Besides, if he faced Callaghan he wanted to fight him fist to fist. If Tadashi wasn't angry about what Callaghan had done to him, now he definitely was. No one touched his family and got away with it. Not even raving lunatics with bots controlled by his mind and a time machine.

'How long? We need to go!'

'About 5 minutes less than the last time you asked me. Tadashi, just chill. She's not dead and we won't be long.'

'Oh yeah? How do you know that?'

'Because I do, alright? Now shut up and let me work.'

'Right. Well, I'm gonna go for a walk. Text me when you're done and I'll come find you.'

Hiro dropped his screwdriver and turned to glare at him. 'No you're not. First of all, you're dead. You're supposed to be dead. You can't just walk around the streets in the middle of the night all of a sudden. Also, your life is in danger. And there's something else as well. What was it? Oh yeah! Callaghan wants you dead and YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER! Has that idea not penetrated that thick skull of yours?'

Tadashi crossed his arms and stared down at him. 'You can't tell me what to do, you're MY younger brother.'

'Oh yeah? Fucking try me.' Hiro's eyes were alight with fire and he jabbed Tadashi's chest as he spoke. 'Why are you so determined to get yourself killed?'

'Oh my GOD stop arguing!' Gogo snapped from where she was sitting in the corner. 'Tadashi if you stopped whining then we would take half the time. And maybe Hiro can't stop you leaving, but I certainly can. So can Honey Lemon's chemicals. You're staying put, you hear me?'

'You lot are ridiculous. I'm not gonna die! It's not like Callaghan is just hanging about in the neighbourhood ready to kill me!'

'It's because we care about you Tadashi.' Honey Lemon said gently. 'You'd do the same for us - you know you would.'

'Yeah dude. You already died once, don't go doing it again!'

Tadashi knew then that he had been overruled. Once Fred disagreed with him, it was over. Fred tended to always stick on Tadashi's side. He nodded and flumped down onto the sofa next to where Wasabi was sleeping. He thought it would wake him up, but nope. Wasabi could literally sleep through anything.

'Hey T, if you wanna do something useful then fix this whilst I track Rena's location.' Gogo said, tossing her helmet over to him. He took it and leaned over to grab a screwdriver. He worked silently and automatically, his hands knew what do without him even thinking about it. Working calmed him, and he knew that Gogo had only given him something to do to distract him. He was grateful for it. She may not seem like it, but Gogo was caring and understanding in her own way. The next few minutes was the quietest they'd been, not even Fred dared to break the silence. Tadashi finished with the helmet and set it down by his feet, watching Gogo as she tapped furiously into her phone. After a minute or so, she yelped victoriously and showed Tadashi her phone screen. A small green dot was blinking, showing Rena's location. She was at an old warehouse by the river. It was an old industrial estate - the place was full of creepy old abandoned factories, warehouses and storage bunkers.

'How'd you do that? She didn't have her phone.' They had found her phone and her bag in the storage room with the rest of their belongings. She didn't even have her shoes with her.

'No, she didn't. But Callaghan clearly does.' Gogo said, grinning slightly evilly.

'Wha- How?!'

'The school. I found his email address and then it was a simple bit of hacking in order to determine his exact location.'

'You scare me.'

'Good. Remember that if you ever put a toe out of line.'

'I- okay.' He chose not to question her abilities any further. Once, he had made fun of her for wearing a pink jumper to school and the next day she had managed to find his Harry Potter fanfiction from when he was 13. Never. Again.

'I think I'm done.' Hiro said and Tadashi jumped up. Without a word, Hiro tossed Baymax's helmet to him and he ran his fingers over the edge. He examined the inside carefully, admiring his brother's work. He nodded and Hiro grinned at him. Tadashi joined him beside Baymax's charging port, where upon Hiro promptly stamped on his foot.

'OW! You know.. it doesn't have to be a real exclamation of pain.' He complained, hopping on the spot and rubbing his foot.

'Well that's what you get for being a dickhead.' Hiro shrugged.

Tadashi was about to retort when Baymax inflated and began to bombard him with questions. 'On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your pain?'

'1. I'm fine Baymax.'

'Well, have fun putting the armour on!' Hiro exclaimed joyfully.

Tadashi narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. No one had told him that this was a difficult job. 'Alright, you lot go get changed into your gear. Aunt Cass has her book club on downstairs in the cafe, if you're not too loud then she shouldn't be able to hear you.' Tadashi said, scooping up Baymax's armour under his arms.

'How do you know that?'

'Book club is every second Sunday. Last week was poetry night so this week must be book club.' He replied. Hiro shot him a questioning look and he shrugged. 'I went on Facebook and saw the photos. I was gonna call her but I wimped out.'

'I can't believe you remembered the order.' Hiro said in disbelief.

'Yeah? Tonight's book club, next week will be wine tasters and then we're back to poetry night. Thursdays are her movie nights, so she's always in then. Every Monday she holds a cooking class, and every Tuesday she attends one. Oh, and every other Saturday is quiz night. Course I remember.'

'You forgot yoga every Thursday.'

'Knew there was one.'

'As interesting as this is, we need to get going.' Gogo snapped, grabbing Hiro's elbow and pulling him towards the stairs. He followed without any protest.

Tadashi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he shoved Baymax's helmet on his head, still ignoring his questions. He quickly understood why Hiro was happy that he'd volunteered. If he had a penny for every time he fell it onto the floor then he would have enough money to buy a house. His palms were bruised and bleeding when his friends came back in, and he was sat in the corner grumpily whilst Baymax sprayed his hands with antibacterial spray.

'Bacitracin!' Hiro exclaimed, laughing at him. 'My favourite!'

'Way to go Hamada.' Gogo smirked.

'Hey it's not my fault! No one warned me!' Tadashi sulked, sounding like a grumpy toddler.

'Are we flying again?' Wasabi asked nervously, looking at Baymax as though he was going to bite him.

'Afraid so.' Hiro said, leaning across and pressing the button on the wall to open the garage. 'It's the fastest way to get there.'

'Oh... brilliant. Just the answer I wanted to hear.' Wasabi mumbled. They stepped outside into the dark street and Tadashi took a deep breath, craning his head up and drinking in the night sky. He tried not to think about how this may well be the last time that he ever looked at it. Hiro climbed up onto Baymax's back and grabbed Honey Lemon's hand, pulling her up to sit beside him. Tadashi felt a sudden stab of fear. That was his little brother up there. That was his baby bother about to go and face a cold blooded villain. He was consumed by the urge to pull him down and lock him inside the house, out of harms way. But he wasn't a kid anymore, in the few months that Tadashi had gone Hiro had seemed to age 10 years. Although he was terrified, he was proud. Proud of the person that he was becoming, proud of his loyalty and his bravery.

He stepped forwards and put a leg up onto Baymax's back. He reached out a hand to Hiro but he didn't help him on. Tadashi looked up to see him chewing his lip anxiously.

'What is it?'

'I don't... are you sure you want to come?'

'Yeah of course I'm sure!' It came out a bit angrier than he intended to and felt guilty as Hiro winced slightly.

'Okay! It's just... you're the one that Callaghan wants dead. And you don't have any gear on.'

'That won't stop me! He's not going to kill me, don't worry about it!'

'No, he has a point Tadashi.' Honey Lemon added, peering around Hiro. 'You'll be in a lot of danger if you come with.'

'Yeah no offence man, but maybe it is just better if you stay here.' Wasabi said, but he quickly recoiled when he saw the angry look on Tadashi's face.

'I'm going! I'll walk there if I have to. I can't just sit back and let you do all the work. She's my sister too, and it's my fault she's even there. I can come with you or I can go my own way.'

'Let him come.' Gogo was the one that spoke this time, and Tadashi was surprised that she was taking his side on this one. 'He can stay with Baymax, and he's armed. If the bonehead wants to come with then we can't stop him, but at least if he's with us we know that he's safe.'

'As safe as you can be in the same building as someone that tried to kill you.' Hiro mumbled, looking down at his hands.

'He tried to kill all of us. Remember, in that epic car chase?' Fred said.

'He'd be about as safe as the rest of us at this point.'

Hiro sighed, clearly he knew he had been overruled. Reluctantly, he leaned down and grasped Tadashi's hand. Tadashi pulled himself up and wedged his foot in a random crevice in the armour. He was shoulder to shoulder with Hiro, Gogo and Honey Lemon were on the other side of his younger brother. Honey tapped him on the shoulder and passed him an electric blue ball. He pressed it to Baymax's back and it exploded in a mini pool of blue goo - reminding him almost painfully of his younger sister's superpower. Hesitantly, he gently touched the surface of the mysterious goo. Deciding that it was safe, he plunged his hand in fully. The goo set and his hand was encased in a solid shell. Now, even if his feet did slip off, he wouldn't plummet to his death. Sure, he'd dangle there precariously by one arm but that was definitely better. His other hand gripped Hiro's wrist. The latter looked at him, a thousand unspoken words being passed between them. Tadashi nodded and Hiro gave the command for Baymax to fly.

'We're coming, Rena.' Tadashi whispered to himself as the wind whistled in his ears. 'Just hang in there. We're coming to save you.'


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know I just realised how similar this is to the sequel lmao. Guess I've got a thing with warehouses? Either that or I'm just super unoriginal. Either way, hope you're still enjoying :)

Rena had no idea how long she had been sat in that chair with her arms tied behind her back, but it was long enough. Her muscles burned and her eyes were drooping with exhaustion. She had spent half the day passed out, yet had never felt more tired in her entire life. Unfortunately for her, whenever her head dropped and she had began to fall asleep she'd been hit. Hard. Her mouth was constantly full of blood no matter how many times she spat it out onto the floor. She could barely move, and the rope across her chest was beginning to restrict her breathing. She was also pretty sure that she had at least a couple of broken bones, her ribs were on fire and every time she moved her leg she cried out in agony. This only annoyed her two captors even more, every time she made a noise she was rewarded with a blow to the side with a baseball bat. At first, they had stuffed a dirty sock into her mouth but this backfired when the foul taste made her vomit everywhere. Instead, they had settled for sitting behind her and playing some kind of card game that Rena didn't know the name of. Their jeering and shouting did no wonders for her throbbing head, but she didn't dare criticise them as she had done previously. It was funny, but the constant attacks had made the sarcasm disappear.

To say that she'd felt better was an understatement.

She felt herself drifting off and jerked her head up in an attempt not to pass out. A shoot of pain shot through her and she let out a soft moan. Luckily, the two guards did not hear her. She tried to concentrate on anything that would keep her awake. She thought about the movie she had watched a couple of days ago, if she closed her eyes then she could see it clearly... the actors in an imaginary movie theatre playing in her head... she could almost hear their voices...in fact, she was certain she could hear something... the bangs and crashes of the battle that had played out onscreen... the shouts and yells as the protagonist defeated the villain...

Her eyes snapped open. No, she definitely was not imagining that. Somewhere in the building, she could hear the faint sounds of battle. There were great clatters and yells and crashes and shrieks. Suddenly, she was wide awake. Her friends were here! They had come to save her!

'What's that noise?' The grumpy one eyed man snapped from the corner. Rena didn't say anything but he still kicked her roughly as he stormed past her. He wrenched open the door and although Rena couldn't see anything, she could definitely hear Fred's yelling and Wasabi's cries of fear. Despite herself, she smiled.

'What is it Blarry?' The other guy asked, pulling himself to his feet and walking over to where his buddy was stood.

Rena supressed a manic desire to snort out with laughter. This super terrifying guy that had spent the last few hours beating her half to death was named Blarry. Not even plan old Barry - Blarry. Maybe it was the burst of adrenaline, but she suddenly didn't feel as scared anymore. She was half tempted to come out with another sarcastic remark, but was saved from making this difficult decision when they sped off to assist Callaghan.

Rena's mind reeled. There was no one guarding her - this was her one chance at escape. Desperately, she wriggled her hands behind her back but quickly discovered that it was no use. Even if she could see the knot, her hands were tied too tightly for her to be able to move them properly. She chewed her lip as she considered her options. The door was open, and her leg's weren't tied. Sure, one of them was probably broken but if she could just get herself out into the corridor...

Hesitantly, she raised to her feet. Almost immediately, her knees buckled and she had to sit back down fast before she ended up stranded on the floor. She bit back a sob and lent back in the chair. The wood creaked as she did this and she had an idea. Slowly, she thrust her weight to the side and the chair jumped towards the wall. She was going nowhere near the door, but that wasn't her intention. If she couldn't walk then she would hop - but she'd save herself the embarrassment of hopping out to her friends and beg for them to save her. Her body screamed in pain and her head was aching as she jolted and skidded towards the wall. She gritted her teeth and got on with it though, any second one of her captors could burst in the room and stop her.

The side of her chair scraped against the wall and she stopped.

For a second, she hesitated. She knew that what she was about to do was going to hurt. A lot. Her body was so bruised and battered that she feared she would black out with even the slightest movement. However, she was on her own. Her friends were fighting for their lives somewhere distant in the massive building and she knew that they couldn't come and save her. She had to save her own pathetic ass.

Slowly, she raised. She swayed unsteadily on one foot, not wanting to put any weight on her injured leg for fear of collapsing again. She hopped slightly to a different position, her leg steadying. Her hands were still tied behind her back and she was terrified she would fall and end up stuck on the floor like an oversized beetle. Well, it was now or never She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

1

2

3

She twisted her body around and hurled herself at the wall as hard as she could. The chair splintered and smashed as it made contact with the wall - just like her face did. A fresh wave of pain exploded across her body as she smacked into the wall and crumpled to the ground. For a second, she couldn't move. The pain was so instant and intense that it made her vision flash red and her head throb. She jerked her head around and bit into her shoulder to prevent herself from crying out. She felt a sharp jolt of pain from her jaw and when she moved her head one of her teeth was still wedged in her shoulder. Grimacing, she turned away and wriggled across the floor to lean back against the wall. The chair had broken into many pieces and she managed to dislodge the rope that had attached her to it from around her chest so that it slipped down slightly and she could breathe again. She took in a few deep breaths, pausing in between to spit out blood. It just kept coming, and no matter how many times she emptied her mouth the metallic taste was still there, clinging to her tongue and making her teeth itch. Rena tried to assess the situation as best as she could, but her head felt like it was full of cotton wool which made it very difficult to concentrate. She tried to straighten out her uninjured leg but it hurt too badly for her to be able to move it very far. A nasty blue bruise was flowering on her calf and it was twisted so badly that it made her feel sick when she looked at it. She had no idea what she had done to it, but a vague memory of being dropped down the stairs drifted hazily across her mind. She swatted the memory away and instead focused on getting her hands free. Then, she might actually have a chance of escaping and finding Baymax before she died. The thought of her dying here alone was a bit grim, but Rena was no optimist. She was weak, she was bleeding and she could barely stand. Every second she felt more and more drained, and she knew that she probably wouldn't be able to last much longer. When was the last time she ate, or even drank anything?

The thought of her dying alone in a cold, empty room was enough to spur her into action. She shifted her leg slightly and felt a surge of hope as she remembered the knife that she had pocketed from Fred's house. In all the chaos, she had completely forgotten about it. Now it could save her. Fortunately, it was in the pocket of her uninjured leg. She jerked her knee upwards and the knife slid out of her pocket and clattered onto the floor. Great. Now she had a knife and no way of actually using it. She twisted around and managed to just grasp the handle with her fingers, but her hands were slick with blood and it fell to the floor again. Rena cursed under her breath and she was about to try again when she heard footsteps out in the corridor.

Immediately, her mind blanked. That was Callaghan, or one of his thugs. They were coming to get her, and then they were going to kill her. She wanted to run, but all she could do was sit frozen in the corner and try not to make a sound. Her breathing increased and she desperately tried to gulp in air as the footsteps came closer. She wasn't going to show them that she was scared, she was going to die with dignity. If only she could stop being so scared. A dark shadow loomed in the doorway and her heart stopped. Her brain sped up, her thoughts tripping over one another as she tried to come up with an idea to save her life. But the figure was coming closer... they were going to be in the room in seconds and they would kill her. She squeezed her eyes shut and hoped to god that it would be fast.

'Please don't be dead... please don't be dead. Rena, can you hear me?' A warm hand was pressed to her cheek and her eyes fluttered open. Crouching next to her, his worried face inches away from her own, was Tadashi.

Rena was so relieved that it was dizzying. 'I...' But that was all she could get out. She burst into tears and Tadashi wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed into his shoulder. It had been so long since he'd hugged her, and she wanted to stay like that forever. For the first time in a long time, she felt safe. Even though they were in a creepy warehouse with a few deranged criminals that wanted them dead. Tadashi pulled away from her and grabbed the knife without her even saying a word. Quickly, he severed through the ropes that bound her hands together and Rena felt the relief instantly. Her wrists were bruised and bleeding, and her fingers were beginning to go blue they had tied them together that tight. She stretched as Tadashi cut away at the rope around her stomach. Rena let out a sigh of relief, relishing the feeling of being free and not wrapped up in ropes.

'I'm so sorry.' Tadashi whispered as he looked at her, fully taking in the extent of her injuries.

'Don't.' Rena replied, her voice hoarse. She couldn't say much, every word scratched at her raw throat and made her head hurt. 'I volunteered. Protect you. Hiro.'

Tadashi nodded, averting his gaze away from her eyes. Rena had the feeling that he was trying not to cry. 'Can you stand?'

She pointed at her leg and Tadashi inhaled sharply. He placed his hand gently on her calf and moved her leg half an inch. Rena howled and he snatched his hand away from her leg as though it had burnt him. 'Okay.' He said, sucking his teeth. 'Then I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way.' He paused before ripping off the sleeve of his coat. 'Sorry.' He said, before rolling it up and stuffing it into her mouth. For a second, Rena was bewildered. Then, Tadashi lifted one of her arms and gently pulled her to her feet.

It was excruciatingly painful. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest and she suddenly understood. She let out a cry of pain that was muffled by the cloth. A smart move. If she were to stumble around the place screaming and yelling, then she might not have managed to make it out of there alive. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead and she collapsed against Tadashi, tears running down her face.

'Baymax. I'm going to get you to Baymax, alright?' He said, and she nodded. Blood trickled down the side of her chin but she made no move to wipe it away. All her attention was on getting out of the room and to Baymax before she passed out. Slowly, Tadashi took a step forward and she tried her hardest not to make a sound. Sure, she was hurting all over but she still didn't want to seem weak. Although maybe that cover was already blown.

Still.

'I'm sorry, I'm trying not to hurt you anymore.' Tadashi said, they had just left the room and for the first time Rena had a glimpse of the place that she had been held captive. They were in a huge warehouse, Tadashi and Rena were stood on a huge metal balcony overlooking the fighting. Everyone was, surprisingly, still on their feet. Gogo and Honey Lemon were fighting one of the thugs, and Wasabi and the other thug were fist fighting. Wasabi had turned off his blades - clearly he didn't want to kill the guy. Fred and Hiro had their attention on Callaghan. Rena watched as Baymax sliced through his tower of microbots and Callaghan was momentarily flying through the air before he was caught again. Fred let out a huge wave of flames, and Rena could feel the blistering heat even where she was stood. Her fingers clawed at Tadashi's jacket, pulling him closer as the flames died down. Tadashi didn't seem to notice, he was too busy scanning the room for an exit. Fortunately, the criminals seemed to be too busy to notice them. Rena's friends weren't fighting to defeat them, they were fighting to distract them. Rena could tell. They were darting about all over the place, making sure that the villains were never in one place for too long. She felt a sudden rush of affection for them. They were doing this for her - they were distracting them so she could escape. And to be fair to them, they were doing a pretty good job. Rena watched as Gogo spun circles around one of the thugs (she couldn't tell which was which from such a distance) as Honey Lemon distracted him with flashes of bright colours. Tadashi's voice made her tear her attention away from them and focus on him.

'Alright, we take the stairs. The warehouse is huge, they probably won't notice us. I smashed a window on the way in, so we could escape through there. It's not ideal, but the door is on the other side of the room and we won't be able to get that far unnoticed. You ready?'

Rena spat out the cloth, grimacing. 'I think so.'

They hadn't even taken a single step forwards before everything went wrong.

Rena wasn't sure how it happened. One minute, she was holding onto Tadashi and making her way towards the stairs and the next she was flying through the air. There had been some kind of explosion, Honey Lemon's chemicals somehow mixing with Fred's fire.

Blistering heat consumed her as she was sent hurtling up towards the sky. Rena let out an ear piercing shriek before she landed roughly on the concrete floor. For a second, she didn't move. She felt numb and there was a ringing in her ears. Dust settled in her hair and she could see Tadashi stirring from right next to her.

Then her entire body exploded with pain and she blacked out.


	12. Chapter 12

She awoke screaming.

She'd been half buried under a pile of rubble, and if her leg wasn't broken before then now it definitely was. She could barely move, a huge metal column had fallen on top of her and trapped the lower half of her body. Her eye was swollen shut but she could see someone running towards her. She couldn't see who it was but they were on her within seconds. They knelt down next to the debris and hauled up the metal that was crushing her. Rena pushed her hands out from under her and rolled over, panting. She raised her head to thank her saviour but then she was grabbed by the neck and hauled into the air.

Even though she could only see with one eye, she recognised the figure immediately. It was her best pal Blarry. She cursed, she should have known as soon as he started lifting the metal with no assistance at all. The guy was built like a bull. She scrabbled at her neck but her movements were slow and jerky. Her head felt like it was full of rocks and everything seemed to slow down.

'RENA!' It was Hiro, clambering over the rocks to get to her. She jerked her head around and instantly regretted it. A fresh wave of pain ricocheted inside her head and neck and she grimaced. Suddenly, he was knocked to his feet by a swarm of microbots. He smashed into a pile of rubble to his left and didn't move. Tadashi came running towards her but she shook her head at him. If he came to help her he'd probably get killed. She tried to gesture towards Hiro but her captor barely let her move her arms. He got the message though and veered off to his left to help him. She realised that she was in the centre of a circle, her friends were approaching from all directions, quietly coming out from the shadows. She breathed a sigh of relief, hopefully she wouldn't be trapped very long.

But of course, something had to go wrong.

Blarry pulled her to his chest and pinned her there with one arm so that he was no longer holding her by her neck. She let out a strangled yell as she was jerked to the side and held roughly to his chest. Callaghan materialised out of nowhere and stood next to her, his chest heaving. Blarry took his free hand and shoved it into his pocket, producing the knife that he had threatened Rena with when she was tied to that chair. Callaghan took it and spun it elegantly around his fingers. Then, he took his mask off and discarded it at his feet. His face was alive with malice as he watched the bots collapse to the floor. He had trapped Fred and Honey Lemon in a sphere of them, and they collapsed to the ground in a heap. Gogo fell away from where she had been pinned to the wall, miraculously landing on her feet. She pulled Wasabi to his feet and they stood directly in front of where Rena and Blarry were standing.

'Nobody move.' Callaghan commanded coldly.

Of course they didn't listen. Gogo sped towards him and was just a few feet away when he raised his knife. He didn't need the bots to scare them anymore. Callaghan stepped over to where Blarry was holding Rena and pressed the knife to her neck.

'Anyone comes near, and I slice her pretty little neck.'

Rena whimpered quietly. Callaghan pressed the knife to her skin and she could feel it slicing into her skin, tiny beads of blood appearing on her neck. Gogo held up her hands and slowly walked backwards, everyone else following in pursuit. Rena didn't dare move. If she moved then there would be a very good chance that it would be the last thing she ever did. She shut her eyes and tried to think happy thoughts in order to calm the feeling of dread that was trickling down her throat like syrup.

'Good.' Callaghan purred. 'Now, I am willing to let her live if you just do one thing for me.' Rena's eyes snapped open. She knew what Callaghan was about to offer and her stomach lurched.

'NO!' She cried, but Blarry clamped his free hand over her mouth. She momentarily forgot about the knife in her panic to get Callaghan to shut up. She struggled against his grip, but she was so sapped of her energy that he probably didn't even notice that she was doing anything.

'Quiet, you insolent girl!' Callaghan snapped angrily.

Out of her good eye, Rena could see Hiro stirring. Tadashi gently coaxed him to his feet and stood up with him, staring defiantly at Callaghan. Baymax made his way slowly over to Hiro and Tadashi started marching towards Rena and the criminals. Time seemed to slow down. She wanted to yell at him but that knife was still pressed to her throat. The slight cut it had made was stinging, but she barely noticed. It was nothing compared to the pain in her leg anyway. Dull waves of pain were sent radiating through her body and she felt like passing out again. She was tempted to let the curtain of darkness take her but she needed to stay awake in order to prevent Tadashi from doing anything stupid. Besides, if she went slack in Blarry's grip then there was a very real chance that her throat would be slit.

'Let her go Callaghan.' Tadashi hissed, his eyes on fire.

'Oh I will. I just need one thing.' Callaghan said, smirking at him. 'In fact, I'll let you all go. I'll let you all go without harming any of you.'

Tadashi blinked and stepped back. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting this. 'I don't trust you.'

'Tadashi, all I require is you. Hand yourself over and I'll let your friends go. Fail to co operate and I'll kill them all. Be rest assured that it will be very slow and very painful. Starting with this pretty one here.' When he said this, he got right into Rena's face and she grimaced. 'Maybe we should start with that big mouth of yours. Then maybe you'll learn some respect.'

Blarry took his hand away from her mouth and Callaghan traced it elegantly with his knife. Swear broke out on her forehead as the point touched her lips. Rena couldn't believe that she'd ever actually looked up to this creep.

'Stop it.' Tadashi commanded, his voice ringing clear across the room. He sounded calm but when Rena looked over at him she had never seen him look more angry. He seemed taller, older.

Callaghan dropped his hand. He held the knife by his side, finally taking it away from her neck. Rena allowed herself to relax slightly. At least she could move now without being killed. 'Next time she won't be so lucky.' He purred. Callaghan's voice sent a shiver down her spine.

'Why are you doing this?' It wasn't Tadashi speaking - it was Honey Lemon. She was clinging onto Fred's sleeve, trembling from head to foot. Her voice was surprisingly steady as she addressed their ex-professor. 'What's the point?'

Callaghan growled angrily. He began to step towards her but Fred shoved her behind himself. Callaghan waved his knife threateningly in his face but Fred didn't flinch. At least, Rena thought he didn't. It was kind of hard to tell, what with the monster costume and all. 'Quit it Callaghan.' Fred exclaimed as Callaghan raised his knife above his head.

'STOP!' Tadashi yelled. 'I'll come with you if you leave them alone!' He ran over to where the three of them were stood and pushed Fred and Honey Lemon away. They stumbled out of the way, leaving Callaghan and Tadashi staring at one another. 'Please.' Tadashi said, 'just don't hurt them.'

Rena's mind went into overdrive, assessing the circumstances. She was trapped with a broken leg and a number of other causalities. If anyone were to attack, then it would be easy for Callaghan just to kill Tadashi. If they didn't attack then Callaghan would get away and kill Tadashi anyway. And there was the microbots to think about. Callaghan's mask was just by her feet. If only she could grab it, then that would be at least one problem she didn't have to worry about. She weighed out her options. She only had a few seconds to act, time was vital. Her eyes drifted over to where her other unnamed friend was standing. He was the least intelligent out of the two thugs, maybe she could use this to her advantage. If that mask was crushed then the transmitter would be completely destroyed and he wouldn't be able to use the bots. A plan formulated in her head. It wasn't brilliant, but it was the best she could do given the circumstances.

'Tadashi!' She screamed. 'Tadashi! NO!' She wriggled as much as she could against Blarry, and in his surprise she managed to slide her arms out from under his grip. She whirled around and began hitting him. Hard. Technically, this wasn't part of her plan. But hey, might as well get at least a little revenge whilst she could. All she needed to do was to cause enough chaos for the other thug to step in and help restrain her. 'I won't let you!' She yelled loudly.

Tadashi and Callaghan froze, staring at her. For a second, neither of them said anything. Then, Callaghan yelled 'RESTRAIN HER YOU IDIOT!'

Rena suppressed an urge to whoop. The other thug lumbered towards the pair of them as she fought against Blarry. He stepped towards her and seized her arms, and Rena feared that her plan hadn't worked. Then-

CRACK

He had stepped on the mask. It crushed to a power under his huge boot and he let go of Rena as he realised what he had done. Slowly, he turned his head to look at Callaghan, to see if he'd noticed.

Oh, he'd noticed alright.

He turned his back on Tadashi and stormed over to where both thugs were stood with Rena. Blarry was so frightened (or was he just angry at his brother?) that he let go of Rena. She tumbled to the ground, landing on her feet. Unfortunately, her leg was still just as broken as it was before. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, biting her fist to prevent herself from screaming from the pain that flared up in her leg. However, on the positive side, she seemed to have been forgotten. Callaghan advanced on the second thug and seized a fistful of his cloak. Whilst he was busy shouting at him, Rena slowly edged backwards towards her friends. Her eyes were solely focused on Callaghan; she had never seen anyone look so angry. He was brandishing his knife around like a madman, his other hand clamped around the thug's throat. Rena found it difficult to understand what he was shouting about, but she gathered that the second guy was called... Barry. She was too afraid to laugh but Barry and Blarry?! They sounded more like a comedy duo than two hardened criminals. They certainly didn't look very scary anymore. In fact, they were pretty much blubbering under Callaghan. Rena wondered what Callaghan had ever done to make those two so scared of him. She felt queasy at the thought, nope, she definitely did not want to know.

She kept edging back despite the fact that she wanted to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. She hadn't gone very far when arms seized her from behind and she was pulled backwards. She didn't resist, she let herself go limp as Gogo and Wasabi (without his blades activated) pulled her back to where everyone else had gathered. Clearly, she hadn't been the only one that Callaghan had forgotten about. Besides, what could he do now? He had no bots! She grinned hugely despite herself.

'Are you okay?' Asked Wasabi anxiously as Honey Lemon and Fred joined them in a little clump behind Callaghan.

'Peachy.'

Before anyone could say anything else, Rena was knocked to the side by a purple blur. She yelped as Hiro squeezed her.

'Let me breath!' She gasped. He let go of her and she winced. Either he had gotten a lot stronger in the last 14 hours or so, or Rena had gotten a lot weaker. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was the latter.

'You look like shit.' He muttered worriedly.

'Gee thanks. Missed you too.'

'We need to get her to Baymax.' Gogo said, 'Rena, can you walk?'

'Don't even think about it.' Rena said. Even the thought of walking across the huge room to where Tadashi and Baymax were stood was enough to make her head spin.

Gogo nodded and stood. She muttered something into her helmet and the robot seemed to understand for he didn't move an inch.

'Okay, but what are we going to do?' Asked Honey Lemon.

'I say we kill them.' Fred suggested. They all stared at him in horror and he shrugged. 'Or we could maim them! Jeez, it's just a suggestion.'

'Okay... any ideas that won't send us to jail?' Said Wasabi.

'Boom.' Fred stated, nodding.

'Boom?'

'Boom.'

'No.. he has a point.' Said Hiro from where he was kneeling beside Rena. 'We need a distraction. Boom.'

Gogo nodded. 'Boom. Surprisingly Fred, that actually makes sense.'

Rena shook her head, she felt like she was missing something. 'Okay blame this on the head injuries but... boom? Surely that's- oh okay.'

She hadn't even finished before Honey Lemon had tossed a stormy grey coloured ball over to where the criminals were standing. It was still in the air when Fred barbecued it and it exploded. As it turns out, it was simply a smoke bomb. Callghan, Blarry and Barry were engulfed in a dense, almost black coloured smoke. It surrounded them, but it seemed to stay there and float around them only instead of spreading out and over across Rena and her friends.

'Genius.' Exclaimed Hiro excitedly.

'Absolutely. Now. Where the HELL is Baymax?' Rena said through gritted teeth. The fact that she was a stones throw away from death had somewhat distracted her from the pain, but now that she was sat away from any danger the adrenaline had disappeared and it had returned in full force.

'He's coming.'

Sure enough, Tadashi and Baymax were running towards them. Tadashi was ahead by quite a distance, probably due to the fact that Baymax was essentially just a walking marshmallow - he certainly was not designed with speed in mind.

'Rena!' Tadashi dropped to his knees next to her and grabbed her hand. 'I'm so glad you're okay! I'm-'

'Mhmm. Shut it.' Rena said, closing her eyes and trying to focus on anything but the pain that was consuming her. Tears squeezed their way through her eyelids and she swiped them away angrily. 'Tell me later, then I'll probably shout at you. Well, if I'm still alive or whatever.'

'What?! Don't say that!'

'I will scan you now.'

Rena's eyes fluttered open and she grinned. 'Man, am I glad to see you.'

'Scan complete. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your pain?'

'I don't know, like a 7? Maybe an 8?'

'My scan shows that you have a transverse fracture in your calf. You also appear to have two broken ribs. Due to the high amounts of pain that you are experiencing, I recommend a strong painkiller. Specifically - morphine.'

Rena nodded, but she was only half there. Black spots had begun to dance across her vision and she had to suppress the urge to vomit. 'Uh huh. Baymax, I don't care.'

The robot nodded and produced a long, thin needle out of thin air. She pulled off her filthy hoodie and injected her, she was pleased to find that he was gentle and precise given his big, clumsy fingers. But of course he was - Tadashi had made him. He then began to make a temporary splint, and Rena closed her eyes and prayed that the morphine would do its stuff quickly before he set her leg. Tadashi helped Baymax work; cleaning the blood from her face gently with a damp cloth.

Meanwhile, the rest of them were keeping up their brilliant distraction. The room was full of colourful bangs and flashes as Honey Lemon and Fred got to work, and Rena was sent into a bought of coughing as she inhaled a cloud of bright blue smoke.

'Sorry!' Honey Lemon called as she ran past, 'don't worry! It's not poisonous!'

That may be true, but her broken ribs definitely did not appreciate it. The morphine did its work though, soon the pain had almost completely disappeared. Rena found herself almost falling asleep again, the only thing keeping her awake was the dull throbbing in her head and the bangs and flashes from behind her.

'Okay.' Said Tadashi at last, 'that's the best we can do for now.'

Rena sat up gingerly. Her leg was wrapped in an simple, hastily made splint. Her arms were littered with various bandages and plasters that Tadashi had put on after cleaning them with a spray bottle of antiseptic. A particularly large gash on her cheek had been stitched up, as had one on her thigh. The only thing that they hadn't been able to solve were her ribs and her black eye. Baymax couldn't just make ice out of thin air, and there was nowhere to get any. No water either, and as the pain wore off Rena realised just how dry and scratchy her throat was. She would have given anything for a few ice cubes to chew.

'Thank you.' She said, addressing both of them.

'Thank us when we get out of here.' Said Tadashi grimly. He stood up and grabbed her arm. Baymax got her other arm and they pulled her to her feet. The room spun dangerously when she stood but she decided not to mention it.

'How are we getting out of here then, genius?'

'I'm working on that one.'

'We can't just leave. We need to... I don't know.. tie them up and call the police or something.'

'Yeah, you're right.'

'Of course I am.'

Tadashi smiled weakly. It quickly disappeared when he averted his gaze from Rena to what was happening behind them. Rena turned as well, a little too fast for she was almost sent crashing to the floor. Tadashi managed to haul her back up to her feet and she raised her head to look at what was going on.

Barry was caught in some kind of bright pink creation of Honey Lemon's. His feet were stuck to the ground, trapped in a huge pile of what looked like a giant pink cloud. He was bent double, pounding the cloud with his ham-like fists. He might as well have not bothered; nothing was happening to the cloud as his fists bounced off the squishy surface. Fred was jumping around him, laughing and hurling insults at him. Rena felt the strange urge to run up and join him. In fact, she probably would have done had it not been for Baymax and Tadashi holding onto her arms. His friend Blarry was fighting Gogo and Hiro. Hiro had somehow managed to climb on his back and was yelling as he tried to throw him off. He was poking him in the eyes, hitting him, punching him - pretty much everything. This would have been bad enough, but paired with Gogo spinning mad circles around him? The guy stood no chance. Rena almost laughed. Maybe it was the drugs, but she was feeling weirdly giddy. Callaghan was locked in a fist fight with Wasabi. Wasabi had activated his scary blades and was fighting Callaghan and his knife; Wasabi was managing to dodge and strike so skilfully that Rena couldn't help but wonder when (and where) he had learnt how to. She watched eagerly as Wasabi knocked Callghan's knife out of his hands, it went spinning to the floor and landed a good few feet away from them. He deactivated his plasma blades - clearly he still held the firm belief that no one should be killed. After what they had done to her, Rena couldn't help but wonder if she felt the same. Still, she was impressed by Wasabi's impressive skills. She didn't think that he had it in him. He also had help from Honey Lemon - she was running about the place firing endless chemicals at people. Rena could truly see the mad scientist side of her showing - she seemed not to care who she aimed. Smoke bombs, explosions, more brightly coloured clouds - the lot. The bangs and flashes were giving Rena a headache. At least they were fun to look at, she was reminded of July 4th fireworks and eating popcorn on the grass with her friends as they watched the show.

Happier times.

She was brought swiftly back to reality all of a sudden. Well, it was hard to stay distracted when you were being lifted onto a robot's back. Tadashi climbed on beside her and gripped her hand. Rena slid her other hand over the metal, trying to find a place in which she could hang on. Finally, she found a slight chink in Baymax's armour that she could slide her hand into. There was still a very high chance that she could fall off due to her splint, but she decided not to worry about it. She'd be fine.

Baymax rose unsteadily into the air, hovering for a few seconds before flying into the air with surprising speed. Rena whooped with glee - the speed was doing no good for the sick feeling in her stomach and the aching in her head but she relished the cool air on her face. Besides, the fire had made the room stiflingly hot. They swooped down and Baymax plucked Hiro from Blarry's back. Hiro yelled out in shock but quickly managed to compose himself. Baymax flew up into the rafters and stood on top of a beam whilst Hiro climbed onto his back. Rena grinned at him as he settled down next to her.

'Who we getting next?' He asked, scanning the scene below them.

'Honey Lemon.' Rena said instantly. She wasn't in the most danger, but she desperately wanted the explosions to stop. Hiro nodded and told Baymax to go get her. Baymax obeyed and in no time at all they were flying low next to her. Honey Lemon jumped on and sent a final ball hurtling towards Blarry. Gogo jumped back quickly and Rena whistled as it exploded into a huge mushroom cloud of pink and orange. The colours swirling together were mesmerising, not at all garish as the other explosions had been.

'Nice one.' Rena said approvingly, nodding at Honey Lemon. Honey grinned at her.

'Gogo!' Hiro called, 'hang on!'

Baymax sped up slightly until he was flying next to her. Gogo slowed and jumped onto his arm. Baymax then swooped in and picked up Fred with ease, carrying him with his right arm. The gang swooped down over Wasabi who expertly jumped up just at the right second so Baymax could catch him. They all whooped as Baymax flew up to the roof and landed high up where Callaghan couldn't reach them.

'Now what?' Asked Wasabi breathlessly.

'We need to call the authorities.' Hiro replied casually, as though this was something they did everyday.

'We also need to call an ambulance.' Tadashi said anxiously, looking at Rena. 'She needs urgent attention. Possibly surgery. I don't know how and the leg injury is.'

'Okay, and we also need to get rid of this gear. Can't have the cops rocking up when we're all in superhero gear.' Added Gogo.

'Can we hurry?' Said Rena anxiously. The black spots had returned and the urge to throw up was getting harder and harder to suppress.

'Should we knock them out?' Honey Lemon said, 'I have the chemicals to make something that'll do the job?'

Tadashi chewed his lip. 'That's probably the best way forward. Unless anyone has any better ideas?'

No one offered any, so Honey Lemon tapped out a simple compound and Baymax jumped onto the ground. He was going to just leave the rest of them up there but they decided that was probably not the best idea in case the fragile wood underneath them splintered anymore. They certainly would not survive the fall. Besides, it wouldn't take long to just knock them out anyway.

Rena watched her friends jump down and run off after the criminals. They seemed to have disappeared when they were busy on the roof, but a quick scan from Baymax showed that they were still in the building. She carefully stepped down from Baymax and told him to go and find them, arguing that it would be faster with him as he had the scan. Baymax picked her up and let her rest against a wall before running off to one of the side rooms from the warehouse.

Rena lent against the wall, taking the pressure off her bad leg. She tried very hard not to think about the causal comment that Tadashi had made about her needing surgery. But on the bright side, if she did need surgery, then at least she could be safely knocked out for a few hours. She was completely drained. In fact, she was so exhausted that she didn't even notice her pal Barry sneak up beside her. She only noticed when he had swung a plank of wood behind his head and hit her hard in the chest with it.

She screamed as she fell, hoping that it would alert her friends that she was in trouble. She landed in a heap on the floor, twisting her leg even more. She screamed at the pain of it, the redness around her vision returning. She was vaguely aware of Barry raising the plank again and just managed to roll out of the way before he hit her again.

Suddenly, he was tackled to the side by someone. Rena thanked the stars as Hiro knocked him to the ground. She tried to sit up but was hit with a wave of unexpected sickness. She curled up into the fetal position and retched. Blood spattered on the ground disgustingly and she grimaced. Everything was a blur as she lay there heaving and crying. More blood came up as she was surrounded with friends and questions but everything was happening so fast that it was like an unidentifiable blur.

Someone rolled her onto her back but she knew she had seconds of consciousness left. She seized a fist of his clothes, recognising Tadashi through the blur of tears. For the first time, the realisation that she might actually die hit her and she needed to say it to him. She needed to say it before she never got the chance to.

'I forgive you.' She gasped.

Her eyes slid shut and her hand dropped to her side.


	13. Chapter 13

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Shut up.

Beep.

Beep.

Oh my god shut up.

Rena's eyes stayed shut. Just 5 more minutes! Sleep was so good, going to school was not as. But her alarm was really starting to do her head in. She tried to roll over to turn off her alarm clock but her limbs felt like lead. She groaned and reluctantly opened her eyes. Bright lights shone above her and she winced. Her bedroom didn't have luminescent lights like that - did it? And that beeping... now that she thought about it... that definitely was not her alarm clock. Her nose itched with the pungent smell of antiseptic. The realisation came to her as she woke up properly.

The hospital. Brilliant.

For a second she debated over just closing her eyes and going back to sleep. At least then she wouldn't be subjected to endless tests and questions and needles. However, Tadashi's cry of 'SHE'S AWAKE!' prevented this. Rena had just enough time to lift her head before she was tackled by a whirlwind of black hair.

'Gerroff!' She yelped as Hiro hugged her. 'Since when are you so affectionate?' Her throat scratched as she spoke and she was suddenly desperate for a glass of water.

'Since you nearly DIED!' Hiro said shakily. He wiped a tear from his eye and scowled at her. 'What happened to your promise?'

Rena's heart did a back-flip when he said that but she pretended not to be shaken by it. 'What do you MEAN? I'm not dead, am I?'

'It's been 10 seconds.' Tadashi interrupted, 'and you're already arguing. Wow. Well done.' Rena looked at him for the first time and did a double-take. His eyes had black circles around them and looked extremely red in the garish lights. He hadn't changed since she'd last seen him and was wearing his filthy t shirt and tattered jeans. His chin was grey with stubble and his hair was greasy and was spiked upwards as though he hadn't stopped dragging his hands through it. It was jarring. And like looking in a mirror. Rena (and Hiro) could always be relied upon to look like this. But Tadashi? Nah. Her neat freak brother wouldn't be caught dead looking so sloppy. And yet... here he was. Go figure.

She decided it would be best to pretend not to notice. 'More like he's attacking me for something I never did.'

'Now hang on a minute-'

'Alright, alright! Break it up.' Tadashi chuckled. 'Come here, you bonehead.'

He wrapped his arms around her a lot more gently than her other brother had done. Rena hugged him back tightly. It had been too long since they'd hugged. Or even spoke to one another without it ending in her storming out or punching him.

'What day is it?' She asked as he pulled away.

'Thursday.'

'Jeez.'

'Yeah, you've been out a while.' Hiro said. He flopped down into the plastic chair next to her and poured himself a glass of water from the jug on her bedside table. Tadashi spotted the look on her face and poured her a glass as well. She took it eagerly, gulping it down so enthusiastically that it slopped over the edge and covered her in ice cold water. She didn't care and savoured the taste as she sank back down into the pillows. As she did so, she took in her surroundings for the first time. The beeping that had annoyed her in her sleep was a heart rate monitor. She was hooked up to a fair few IV lines. She had no idea what half of them did, but noticed a steady drip of morphine in her right arm. Ah. That would explain why nothing was hurting as it should have been. Her arms were covered in stitches and she noticed how she had a bandage around her ribs where the thug had caught her with the plank. Her leg was wrapped in an extremely thick layer of bandages and ached dully whenever she moved despite the morphine. But she didn't care. She was alive, she hadn't broken her promise to Hiro and the pain wasn't nearly as bad as it had been in the warehouse. She allowed herself to sink back into her pillows, closing her eyes and savouring the blissful feeling of peace that had settled over her for the first time in weeks.

'Hang on, you're not going to sleep again are you?'

'Well, I will if you keep speaking to me in that tone. Dickhead.' Rena replied, opening her eyes again. Hiro rolled his eyes at her but he was grinning.

Tadashi shook his head, exasperated. 'Glad to see nothing's changed in the time I've been gone.'

Rena eyed him. 'No. A lot has changed, but there's always time to talk about that later. Besides, I've got questions that I demand you answer.'

Tadashi nodded. 'Fire away.'

'Does Aunt Cass know?'

'Yeah.'

'How did she react?'

'Pretty well I think. There was a lot of crying after she got over the initial shock but yeah. Yeah I reckon she took it well.'

Hiro snorted. 'Yeah, you think? I've never seen anyone so happy.'

Rena grinned. 'Good! I'm gonna assume that she's back at the cafe?'

Tadashi nodded, 'yeah. She didn't want to leave but I insisted that you wouldn't mind.'

'And I don't.' She was about to ask about Callaghan but she decided she'd rather not know yet. She didn't think that he would have escaped. She liked to be able to think that her friends had been able to handle it but still. If he had escaped, she'd rather stay in the shadows at least a little longer. Ignorance is bliss.  
\--------------------------------------  
'Hey, what's bugging you?'

The sun had sent and the blinds had been drawn. Their friends had just stopped by and Rena enjoyed a very dramatic reconstruction of Fred singlehandedly managing to track down and capture all three villains. Obviously he was lying but Rena didn't have the heart to break it to him that Tadashi and Hiro had already told her the whole story before he even arrived. As it turns out, they had managed to prevent them from escaping. Just. Whilst she was busy lying unconscious on the floor, Gogo, Honey Lemon and Wasabi had managed to trap them using Honey Lemon's gear. Then, they had all left as fast as possible with Baymax and Hiro. Tadashi had stayed and called both the police and an ambulance. He told them the truth about them being kidnapped and Callaghan confessed pretty much straight away. So, as it turns out, things had gone pretty well. About time they had at least a little luck.

Tadashi had become quieter and quieter as the day went on. He looked utterly exhausted but refused to give in to sleep. He was sat in a chair on her left, his shoulders slumped forwards and his head buried in his hands. They were the only two in the room; Hiro had left about half an hour earlier with Cass (after many hugs and tears from the latter). Rena had insisted upon Tadashi leaving with them but he'd refused.

'What?' He said, jerking his head up as though he'd only just registered that she'd spoken. 'Oh... nothing. Don't worry about it, you need your rest.'

'No don't be giving me that. I know you, and I know that something's wrong with you.'

'Seriously, I'm fine. You need to-'

'If you say that I need to rest one more time I will strangle you with one of my handy wires.' She held up her hand with the morphine drip in as though to make a point. 'Don't test me.'

He smiled weakly. 'Just been thinking.'

'About...? Any chance of you elaborating on that?'

He sighed heavily and gestured to the room as he spoke. 'THIS! This whole... thing! With Callaghan and... everything!'

Rena softened slightly. 'it's over now. You know that, right? He can't hurt us now. He can't hurt anyone.'

'Yeah but he did hurt people. And when I say people, I mean you. He hurt you the most.'

She recoiled at his words. Yeah, Callaghan hurt her. But so what? She wasn't weak, she wasn't going to let herself dwell on it. 'But I'm fine Tadashi. The surgery went fine and I'll walk again soon. The bruises will fade and it'll be like nothing ever happened. We can put this all behind us.'

'I didn't just mean that! I meant the whole... thing that happened first.' His voice became smaller and smaller as he spoke.

Rena took his hand. 'But you're here now. And I'm sorry for overreacting. It wasn't your fault, and I see that now. It was all just a bit... much.'

'No I get it! At least I do a little bit. You know, I thought I knew what it would be like before. I thought that you going all crazy was a gross overreaction but then you went into surgery and they said that you probably wouldn't survive and-' His voice cracked. 'I got it then. Obviously it doesn't compare, but it does a little bit? You know what I mean?'

Rena's head spun. They said she wouldn't survive? No one had thought to mention that to her. She only managed to get out a small 'yeah.'

Tadashi buried his head in his hands again. 'I mean you had to deliver my eulogy! Jesus! I can't imagine what that must have felt like.'

Rena cleared her throat and fixed her stare at a point on the wall that was just above his head. Flashbacks of the funeral danced across her mind and she swallowed the lump in her throat. She couldn't dwell on that now. Tadashi was here, and he was alive. No matter how bad things were, they weren't that bad anymore. 'It was a nice funeral though. Even though it rained.'

'What did you say?'

Rena sighed. She knew this question was coming but that still didn't make her any more happy about answering it. If she knew that she would have to recount it to him at a later date then she probably wouldn't have thrown away the cards that she'd meticulously planned the speech on. It was a long moment before she spoke and Tadashi was looking at her curiously. 'You know, I planned it for ages. I had all these cue cards written out and in perfect order. It was going to be the perfect send-off, I'd spent so long working in stories and everything. I spent ages on it! I wanted those who just turned up for the sake of it to leave as though they knew you. Truly knew you.' She took in a deep breath and her eyes watered. Tadashi squeezed her hand.

'You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.'

'No, it's okay. I know I'd want to hear mine as well if it were the other way around. We put a bench up for you, under the cherry tree. I knew you'd never want a stuffy old Church funeral, it's not very you. So they built a bench and we held the service there. And it was lovely, it was. It was early in the morning and the sun was making these beautiful colours in the sky that you would have loved. The river was sparkling and the birds were singing. The only downside was the rain. It was the kind of rain that's more spray than actual rain, you know? But the rain was nice in a way. I remember thinking how you would appreciate the beauty in the perfect pathetic fallacy and the rainbow that was made in the sky.' Tadashi edged closer as Rena continued, the words flowing out of her with ease. 'I stepped forwards to deliver your eulogy and got about three words in before I stopped and dumped the cards on the floor. I didn't like how planned it felt. It was a funeral, not a school project. You're worth more than that. I spoke about the time when we sat under the tree together a couple of years back. Remember? I'd just gotten into SFIT and you'd finished your first year there. You were elated - we both were.'

Tadashi nodded, smiling at the floor. 'Yeah. That day was good.'

'It felt like the start of something new. Maybe that's why I chose that day to talk about? I don't know. But it felt like it was momentous, even though we were just sat under a tree. Does that make sense?'

'Mhmm, I think it does. It felt like everything started getting better from that moment.'

Rena smiled. Her fingers moved automatically to the post-it in her pocket before she realised that she was in a hospital gown and the post-it was probably lost somewhere. But it didn't matter, because it had finally come true. Tadashi was back and everything was better. She sank down into her pillows and breathed. It was the first time in years that her mind had ever been so clear.

'What else did you say?'

'Gross stuff about you being a hero. About how you're brave and compassionate and strong and inspirational. And about how you're gonna change the world. Yuck.'

Tadashi laughed gently. 'If only it were true!'

'It is true! Don't make me grovel about you again because I won't do it. But it was true. Every word. And don't let anyone make you think otherwise cause I'll kick their ass, alright?'

'If you say so.'

'I hate you.'

'I hate you more.'

Rena's eyes were dropping. She'd already fallen asleep once that day but the medication made her head feel like it was stuffed with wool. Not that she minded, she felt peaceful and numb.

Tadashi noticed. Of course he did. 'You should get some more sleep. Seriously.'

Rena nodded and closed her eyes. She sighed as she felt her consciousness slipping. Tadashi was right.

Everything is better now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO! So that's it - hope you enjoyed reading this! I know I had a lot of fun writing it :)  
> If you enjoyed please consider dropping a comment or some kudos - any support is massively appreciated!


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